Veteran German Striker Claims He Would 'Have Taken' Sandro Wanger to the FIFA World Cup

Veteran German striker Mario Gomez has claimed that, if it were up to him, he would have taken Bayern Munich's Sandro Wagner to this year's World Cup in Russia.

Veteran German striker Mario Gomez has claimed that, if it were up to him, he would have taken Bayern Munich's Sandro Wagner to this year's World Cup in Russia. 

Gomez has found himself a place in Joachim Loew's provisional squad at the expense of Wagner who has scored 12 goals in the Bundesliga this season. The Stuttgart striker has taken his place in the squad alongside Timo Werner and Nils Petersen as he looks to compete in his fifth major tournament for Die Mannschaft.

Speaking to t-online.de (via the official Bundesliga website) Gomez spoke about the decision to leave out Wagner for this summer's World Cup.

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"Obviously Sandro's disappointed," Gomez stated. "I'd have taken him to the World Cup."

Following his omission from the provisional squad, Wagner almost immediately announced his retirement from international football.

Gomez, who scored nine goals in the league this season, did not hesitate to also talk about his fellow strikers that did make the cut.

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"Timo is the future: he can become one of the best strikers in the world – I've said that many times before," the 33-year-old said. "And Nils has earned it because he's really come on and was really impressive for Freiburg in the season just gone."

As for Gomez himself, he claims that he will not be looking no further ahead than this summer.

"I don’t know what's going to happen after the World Cup.

"The only thing I know for certain is that I’ll definitely be at Stuttgart next season. The coach knows what I bring to the table, and I'll do everything to be [at the World Cup]. I can't do any more than that."