Joachim Löw announces final Germany Euro roster, with some surprises

According to UEFA regulations, all countries participating in this year's European Championship 2016 have to announce their final rosters today, by midnight Central European time.  Germany national team coach Joachim Löw revealed his decision a little early, and explained the reasoning behind it.

Some national team coaches only invited the requisite 23 players to their training camps, which killed any kind of suspense before it started.  But Löw brought 27 players to his location in Switzerland, in order to cover for multiple players who were still dealing with injuries (Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mats Hummels, Marco Reus), and to create a competition for the spots on the final roster.

Most people had expected the young players (Julian Brandt, Leroy Sane, Julian Weigl, and Joshua Kimmich) to be first in line to get cut, but they were only partially right, as the coach announced that Brandt, Karim Bellarabi, Sebastian Rudy and Marco Reus were tagged for the journey home.

Brandt was not a huge surprise, since he's only 20 years old, and Löw explained that this should be viewed as a challenge and incentive to make it back over the next months and years.

Of course, the biggest shock came when Marco Reus was announced, on his 27th birthday, no less.  He is still dealing with a major knee injury, and the medical staff was not confident enough that he would recover in time for the tournament.  The coach did not go into details on why Rudy and Bellarabi were cut.

At the end of the very short press conference (no questions were taken), Löw also elaborated on his captain, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mats Hummels.  Both were deemed to be close by the doctors, with Bastian expected to join team practice today, and Hummels following a few days later.

From a Bayern perspective, this means that there are five representatives from the Rekordmeister, with Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, Thomas Müller, Mario Götze, and Joshua Kimmich, who will be participating in his first major tournament with the senior team.

Official Euro 2016 roster here.