Deniz Undav: Composure Key for Stuttgart Against Bayern

In a week when most strikers talk about instinct and “feeling it,” Deniz Undav reaches for something far more sober: composure.

“Composure in front of goal is very important for strikers because it makes your shots more accurate,” the VfB Stuttgart 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 an unusually candid admission from a man about to walk into one of the biggest games of his career. On Saturday in Berlin, Undav and Stuttgart step out as defending champions, yet he has no interest in dressing up the reality of the occasion.

Clear-eyed about Bayern

In the capital’s showpiece, Stuttgart face the record winners. Undav doesn’t bother with bravado.

The 29-year-old calls his side “complete underdogs against the record winners,” and he means it. “Bayern are the clear favourites, and there's no point pretending otherwise,” he says.

That doesn’t sound like surrender. It sounds like a starting point. A realistic reading of the landscape before the first whistle blows.

“Still, anything can happen in a single game,” Undav insists. “We know we can disrupt them, unsettle them. We'll give it our all.”

That is where his obsession with composure connects back to the bigger picture. Against Bayern, one chance might be all he gets. One moment to be “ice-cold.” One finish that could tilt a final.

Kebab, not champagne

For all the talk of tactics and favourites, Stuttgart’s ritual after the final is disarmingly simple. Win, and the celebration is not caviar and velvet ropes. It’s a kebab.

After the match, the squad will mark the occasion with what Undav calls a “victory kebab” – a tradition born in Berlin and now firmly part of the club’s folklore.

“If we win, everyone's having a kebab,” he says, half-laughing, half-serious. The planning has already started. “I'll watch a few YouTube videos about the top five kebabs in Berlin and decide which one I like.”

It is a small detail, but it captures the mood around this Stuttgart side: grounded, self-aware, unpretentious. No illusions about who they are facing. No shame in dreaming of a late-night takeaway with a medal around their necks.

Berlin, then the world stage

Once the final whistle goes and the kebab hunt is done, Undav’s horizon stretches far beyond Berlin. Next comes the World Cup with Germany, the stage every striker craves.

He may arrive there with more than just momentum. A new VfB contract could be in his luggage.

“There's no reason why not,” he says of extending his stay. “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” will decide more than his future. They could decide Saturday’s final as well: the tiny margins in the box, the split-second of calm, the choice of corner, the weight of a shot.

Undav has spent months drilling that feeling, chasing the state he calls “ice-cold.” Now comes Bayern, Berlin, and the kind of night that tests whether all that work turns a chance into a goal – and a final into a feast.