“I was never scared to look for challenges,” Thilo Kehrer says as he thinks about leaving Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar behind for a fight for Premier League survival. The defender is in a thoughtful but confident mood. He has not had an easy time since moving to England last summer and yet, as he prepares to face Tottenham this afternoon, there is no sign the Germany international regrets swapping dominance at Paris Saint‑Germain for a season of unease at West Ham.
“I was always open to things that would challenge me in a way that might risk struggling,” Kehrer says. “But I always knew that overcoming this would make me better as a player and grow as a person. It has been the absolute right step. The Premier League is different to Ligue 1 or the Bundesliga. It was exciting to watch the league. It’s even more exciting to play in it.”
The belief is good to hear because things have not gone to plan for Kehrer so far. He conceded a penalty on his Premier League debut, scored an unfortunate own goal when West Ham drew with Spurs in August and has been beaten too easily on a few occasions. He could be forgiven for wondering if he was made for English football. Yet Kehrer is calm. He started when PSG lost the Champions League final to Bayern Munich in 2020; perhaps he just needs time to show why West Ham bought him.
“When I came in I had a long pre‑season,” Kehrer says. “I was thrown straight in and I needed a feel for the team first. The fastest way you get that is by playing. There is a possibility of things not going the way you want and we had a difficult start. We had the performances, but couldn’t get the results.
“We had players coming into a system which had worked for two years, changing the balance of the team. Sometimes it takes a bit of time for players to adapt to each other and in the last few weeks we are stabilising. The cogs are becoming more fluid. You never know how long it will take players to connect: sometimes instantly, sometimes a little bit longer.”
West Ham have slipped into a relegation battle but their form has picked up. David Moyes has switched to a back three and Kehrer, who can play centrally or as a full-back, had a good game in last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea.
The 26-year-old’s mentality is strong. He talks about opening a foundation in Burundi, his mother’s homeland, and is forthright when it comes to discussing whether there was too much pressure on footballers to protest against Qatar’s human rights record at the World Cup.
Kehrer has perspective. His mother is a nurse. His father, who is German, worked as a carpenter for NGOs in Africa. The work was valuable. Kehrer’s parents lived in Burundi and Rwanda. It was the 90s and they saw civil war in both countries. “They had to be evacuated multiple times to neighbouring countries,” Kehrer says. “If not, they would not have survived.”
Kehrer was three when his family moved to Germany but he feels a connection with Burundi. “This tragedy of almost 30 years ago is still affecting the country,” he says. “Rwanda a little less because there has been more political stability after the war. Burundi is a few years behind.
“It’s nice to give back with the foundation. I feel very privileged in the position I am in today and in the opportunities I had in my youth. Going to school, being able to do sports like football, basketball, track and field – in Burundi there are so many young kids who are as talented or even more talented than I was at that age, but they don’t have the same opportunities.”
Kehrer has his feet on the ground. He came through Schalke’s vaunted academy and speaks fondly of the club’s under-19s coach, Norbert Elgert, who helped launch the careers of Mesut Özil, Julian Draxler and Leroy Sané. “You get taught fundamental things that are important in football but in life as well,” Kehrer says. “It’s about respect. It is about equality. It is about discipline. It’s about hard work. It’s about humbleness. I think that’s why so many players have made it into professional football from that academy.”
It was different at PSG, who signed Kehrer in 2018. He joined one of the best teams in the world and would end up in the same dressing room as Messi, Mbappé and Neymar. “The quality was huge, immense,” he says. “You have to be on the spot every day.” Could Kehrer live with Mbappé’s pace? “I don’t think anyone can keep up with Mbappé,” he says. “But by being smart and having help from the team, you can stop him.”
Kehrer thought his understanding of the game grew when Thomas Tuchel managed PSG. Tuchel’s coaching helped him become a Germany international. Hansi Flick has given him opportunities and took him to Qatar for the World Cup but Germany’s campaign ended in failure. Kehrer started one game – the 1-1 draw with Spain – and Germany suffered their second consecutive group stage exit.
“A few days after going out of the tournament we went to analyse the things that didn’t go right,” Kehrer says. “We said we need to draw a line and focus on what’s coming. We’ve got the Euros in Germany next year. There are things we need to do better. Things that can’t happen again.”
Kehrer considers the noise before Germany lost their opening game to Japan. The focus was on Fifa barring captains from European teams from supporting LGBTQ+ rights by wearing the “OneLove” rainbow armband. Qatar’s human rights record was under the spotlight and Germany’s players responded to Fifa’s edict by covering their mouths when they were photographed before kick-off against Japan.
Inevitably some people argued that Germany lost because they were too focused on political issues. “It would be too easy to put it on that,” Kehrer says. “But you also can’t deny that some of the things around the game affected the preparation. I’m not saying that in the game things went wrong because of that. But I don’t think they helped. We analysed all of that and it’s definitely something to look out for in the future.
“Over the last few years as a national team we are standing for human rights. I just think during the World Cup there are some things as players we are happy to do and we think are our responsibility. But there were also things being put on players.
“[Jürgen] Klopp said it – the players should mainly focus on competing in this tournament. Having a World Cup every four years, nobody knows how many times you’re going to get there. It can be discussed. But there was maybe too much pressure on players.”
Kehrer tries to find the right balance. He wants to help the less fortunate but he cares about his football. He needs to stop Harry Kane on Sunday afternoon. “He is a very intelligent striker,” Kehrer says. “He is like [Karim] Benzema. You need to be so awake against him.”
