Black sheep

I'm not sure how big a fan Joachim Loew is of the seventeenth-century English essayist and poet Alexander Pope, but Pope had a pithy saying that could be of use as the Germany's national coach gears up for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa: to err is human; to forgive, divine.

Certainly Kevin Kuranyi needs some forgiving. On October 11, 2008, angry at being left out of the line-up for Germany's World Cup qualifier against Russia, Kuranyi committed the cardinal sin of walking out of the stadium at half-time.

Loew responded, correctly, by striking Kuranyi off his short and long lists for the national team.

But the Kuranyi of 2010 is a completely different animal to the petulant 2008 model. The sensitive striker has responded well to all the challenges new Schalke coach Felix Magath, a notorious taskmaster, has thrown at him.

With 13 goals in 25 league matches, Kuranyi is the second-best scorer in the Bundesliga – and has done it on a team which, unlike Bayern or Leverkusen, does not create hordes of chances.

So should Kuranyi's current stellar performances be allowed to make up for his poor conduct in the past? They should – for a pair of reasons.

The human factor

Last November, at the memorial service in honor of Hanover and German national goalkeeper Robert Enke, who had committed suicide, the president of the German Football Association (DFB) Theo Zwanziger made a plea for everyone involved with soccer to remember that players are human beings.

There were a lot of well-intentioned homilies spoken on that day, but everyone agreed that Zwanziger, a man normally not known for his eloquence, had hit the mark. And among those who applauded Zwanziger's words was Joachim Loew.

Now, I'm not normally one to approve when a player's ego causes him to let down his side, and Kuranyi behaved like a spoiled brat and an idiot. But I do have some understanding for why the striker acted as he did.

Kuranyi had tried to establish himself in the national team for years, only to miss the final cut for then-coach Jürgen Klinsmann's squad for the 2006 World Cup. He overcame the crushing disappointment of watching football's biggest event, held in his home country, on TV – only to be banished to the stands by Klinsmann's successor.

He then blew a fuse. Was he in the right? Absolutely not. But should he be forced to pay for his mistake for the rest of his playing career and perhaps life?

Recalling Zwanziger's words last November, I think the answer has to be no.

A useful inclusion

Another reason that Loew should at least consider pardoning Kuranyi is that he may need him.

As it stands, center forward is one of the weak spots in Germany's squad. Mario Gomez is currently injured and does not enjoy a particularly good international record. Miro Klose is having a terrible season and has lost his starting spot in Bayern Munich's squad to Gomez. And Stefan Kiessling is a virtual debutant with no record worth speaking of for his national side.

Kuranyi's record for Germany isn't spectacular - 19 goals in 52 matches. But in many of those games, he came on as a substitute, and he remains a consistent, if not stellar performer in the league, having scored ten goals or more for the past eight seasons.

There's no way Kiessling would get the nod over a player of this calibre, were it not for Kuranyi's history with Loew.

This season, Kuranyi has been a model player, and he's performed in the clutch. 9 of his goals have secured points for Schalke, and he's certainly one main reason the Royal Blues are second in the table and challenging for the league title.

Since he plays under Magath, there are no questions about his physical fitness. And he's even shaved off the creepy facial hair he sported for much of his career - as if to demonstrate his new serious approach.

So come on, Yogi, give poor Kevin a break. Kuranyi could be just the sort of player you need to pull out a tight result at the big show in South Africa.

And as a wise Englishman once said long ago: to err is human; to forgive, divine.

Jefferson Chase is a Deutsche Welle sports reporter.

Editor: Susan Houlton