Deniz Undav on Composure and the Berlin Final
Deniz Undav talks about goals the way a craftsman talks about tools. No romance, no mystique. Just repetition, nerve, and the cold edge that separates the good from the ruthless.
“Composure in front of goal is very important for strikers because it makes your shots more accurate,” the VfB forward explains. “If you drill that every day, you become ice-cold. If I had a bit more of that, I'd surely finish more chances.”
It is a revealing admission from a 29-year-old who has already built a reputation as one of the Bundesliga’s most decisive finishers. He is not polishing his image; he is dissecting his own game. The timing is telling, too. On Saturday, in Berlin, Undav and Stuttgart walk into a final with a giant blocking the tunnel.
Underdogs in the capital
In the capital, the roles are clear. One side is the serial winner, the other the resurgent challenger still learning how to live with expectation.
“In Saturday's Berlin final, the defending champions are complete underdogs against the record winners,” Undav says. No attempt to spin it, no bravado. “Bayern are the clear favourites, and there's no point pretending otherwise. Still, anything can happen in a single game. We know we can disrupt them, unsettle them. We'll give it our all.”
That last line is standard football vocabulary, but the context is not. Stuttgart have spent the season tearing up assumptions, playing with a blend of intensity and freedom that has dragged them from uncertainty into the spotlight. Now they face the ultimate reality check: Bayern, in a one-off final, with a trophy on the line and the whole of Germany watching.
Undav’s focus, though, stays on the controllables: movement, timing, composure. The small margins that decide whether a final becomes a story told for years or a regret carried for just as long.
A kebab for champions
For all the tension, there is also a lighter thread running through Stuttgart’s buildup. It started in Berlin, and it might end there too – with a kebab.
After the match, if things go their way, the squad will celebrate with what has become a quirky ritual: the “victory kebab.” It sounds trivial; inside a dressing room, it is anything but. Rituals bind teams.
“After the match, the squad will celebrate with a victory kebab—a tradition that began in Berlin,” Undav explains. “If we win, everyone's having a kebab. I'll watch a few YouTube videos about the top five kebabs in Berlin and decide which one I like.”
The image is vivid: a group of players, drained from 90 minutes against Bayern, medals around their necks, swapping boots for takeaway wrappers somewhere in the city. It underlines how this Stuttgart side operates—serious when it counts, relaxed enough to breathe when the pressure peaks.
Future on the line, but mind on the final
Once Berlin is done, Undav’s schedule does not ease up. He will join Germany at the World Cup, carrying with him both his current form and, potentially, a new contract.
“After that, Undav will join Germany at the World Cup—and he could be carrying a new VfB contract with him,” he says of his own situation. “There's no reason why not. I've said many times that I enjoy playing here; I feel at home. I feel like a Stuttgart native, even if I'm not one. We're not far apart; it's just the small details.”
Those “small details” often decide careers. Length of deal. Role in the squad. The financial recognition that matches a player’s impact. For Stuttgart, tying down a striker who feels this aligned with the club’s identity would be a powerful statement. For Undav, it would lock in a place where he feels both trusted and understood.
But that conversation can wait. Before contracts, before World Cup flights, there is Berlin. There is Bayern. There is a final that could tilt the trajectory of his career and Stuttgart’s project in a single evening.
He has spoken about composure, about becoming “ice-cold” in front of goal. Now the question writes itself: in the heat of Berlin, with a trophy at stake and the record champions on the other side, can he live up to his own standard?
