Loew calls up Hunt and Mueller for friendlies

Coach Joachim Loew has named promising Werder Bremen midfielder Aaron Hunt and Bayern Munich’s rising star Thomas Mueller to the Germany squad for friendlies against Chile and the Ivory Coast.

Loew’s squad will play Chile in Cologne on Saturday November 14 and the Ivory Coast in Gelsenkirchen on Wednesday November 18.

Having already secured their World Cup berth for South Africa 2010 with a 1-0 win over Russia in Moscow last month, Loew is keeping one eye on the future by calling up 20-year-old Bayern midfielder Mueller.

And 23-year-old Hunt, who can play for Germany or England because of his English mother, has caught the eye with a series of strong performances for Bremen including two goals in a 2-2 draw at Nuremberg last weekend.

Both Mueller and Hunt are capable of playing as strikers and offer Loew plenty of flexibility as he looks at options for his World Cup squad.

There is no place in Loew’s squad for Hanover goalkeeper Robert Enke, who has lost his number one place to Leverkusen’s Rene Adler, while Werder Bremen’s Tim Wiese and Schalke’s Manuel Neuer have been called up.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen), Manuel Neuer (Schalke 04), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen)

Defenders: Andreas Beck (1899 Hoffenheim), Jerome Boateng (Hamburg), Arne Friedrich (Hertha Berlin), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Marcel Schaefer (VfL Wolfsburg), Heiko Westermann (Schalke 04)

Midfield: Michael Ballack (Chelsea/ENG), Christian Gentner (VfL Wolfsburg), Thomas Hitzlsperger (VfB Stuttgart), Aaron Hunt (Werder Bremen), Marko Marin (Werder Bremen), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Mesut Oezil (Werder Bremen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Piotr Trochowski (Hamburg)

Forwards: Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich), Stefan Kiessling (Bayer Leverkusen), Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich), Lukas Podolski (Cologne)