Toni Kroos shows his new side at the end
Toni Kroos doesn't have to prove anything to anyone and comes back just before the end of his career, leading the German football national team to the Euro 2024 semifinals at home. However, the grand romantic ending remains elusive for him.
Toni Kroos tries one more time. He knows this is his last chance. A free kick in the last seconds of injury time against Spain. Once more, the hope of the equalizer. The 34-year-old can no longer run. Struggles plague his body, and his muscles have given up even before the quarter hour mark. Kroos has to stretch himself before he steps up. Then he runs, strikes the ball softly into the penalty area. It sinks and lands - in the arms of Spain's goalkeeper Unai Simon. Whistle blows.
That was it. Toni Kroos' last game as a professional footballer. The grand romantic ending remains elusive. One of the greatest German players, one of the best midfielders of all time, leaves the pitch forever. World champion 2014, six Champions League titles, domestic cups, championships, supercups in Germany and Spain: On his long resume, there's only one title missing for Toni Kroos: European champion. They couldn't have planned that, he said a few days ago. After the 1:2 defeat in the Euro 2024 quarterfinals against Spain, it remains that way.
Kroos showed a completely new side of himself in the game. Toni, the two-time fighter. A side the German fans didn't know yet. He threw himself into the duels, fouling Barcelona star Pedri so fiercely that he had to be taken off the pitch. To everyone's surprise: It wasn't him who received a yellow card, but rather Leipzig's Dani Olmo, who became the match winner with a goal and an assist. A tragic side note of a great evening. Kroos had 102 touches, 92% of his passes reached their target, he covered the most running meters for outside defenders Joshua Kimmich. He should have also seen a yellow-red card. He and all other DFB stars on the field didn't want to accept the defeat.
Almost too sentimental
The story of how Toni Kroos returned to the German football national team shines at the Home-European Championship. The last dance, the grand farewell: It could have been the heroic story. His jersey was the best-selling one, his name was chanted by the German fans in the corners. The 34-year-old, who was denied recognition until just before the end of his career, puts on the national team jersey again and leads a shaky, growing DFB team to the title: It was too sentimental to be true.
Despite that, it wasn't impossible: National coach Julian Nagelsmann brought Kroos back into the national team during those years. What started as an "interesting idea" became the core of the new DFB team. Kroos was not only involved in the planning but was the control center of this team: If Kroos played poorly, everything was poor. The Nagelsmann's were dependent on him. It sounds risky, but it wasn't. For he was the midfielder every team would have wanted. When everything was on fire and there was no way out, they could give the ball to the dad. He took care of everything. The personal aura. Natural authority.
There are statistics that back this up. No other player in this tournament played as many passes, and no one had as many assists with over 100, had a comparable good pass percentage. But it's also the small scenes that show his influence. Time and again, one caught him lowering calmingly his arms. In the chaotic phase of the Switzerland game, he was at the midfield, turning in all directions and showing repeatedly with a "thumbs up" gesture: Stay calm, people, this will be alright.
Audience with the King
Toni Kroos was the only active world star that German football had left. For a long time, he was neglected, but with his return, he received hero status. Perhaps sometimes even too much.
When Kroos was a guest at the DFB's big press hall in Herzogenaurach to hold an audience with the journalists and journalists, not only many international colleagues were present. He also came late. Because he could.
Before the Spain game, when Kroos came to the press conference for the second time, a small group of autograph hunters gathered before the barriers of the media center, significantly more than for the other DFB stars. They didn't get close to their hero, of course not. But they observed him as he gave interviews. "I just saw Toni Kroos from behind," said a woman excitedly into her phone, before she then disappeared from the fence of the media center.
It was not a logical development that Kroos would eventually receive this recognition in the national team. Neither from the fans nor from the DFB team. He played every second in the World Cup triumph in Brazil in 2014. He scored the fastest double pack of the tournament history in the 7:1 semifinal against the host. But in the collective memory, he is not one of the heroes. Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Özil, or Manuel Neuer landed there instead. Rarely, but Toni Kroos, the only football World Cup winner born in the GDR.
Four years later, he - like the entire team - was far below his capabilities. The midfield strategist gave the DFB team hope in the second game against Sweden with a goal in stoppage time for the win. But it didn't help: The national team was eliminated after the loss against Mexico in the group phase. The historic debacle of Russia, the first time the proud football nation Germany was eliminated in the group stage of a World Cup. The team of national coach Joachim Löw lost itself in its inefficient ball possession football. In its heart, Toni Kroos controlled the ball from left to right and back. His name was linked to the failure.
It was not the first time he suffered under the decisions of his trainer. In the EM semifinal 2012, he, who now has other qualities, was supposed to guard Italy's strategist Andrea Pirlo. That didn't go well. Löw then forced Kroos and İlkay Gündoğan into a double six at the Euro 2021 - and neither of them liked it. The duo was counter-attacking, it didn't work. Together with Löw, the DFB career of its most influential player, Toni Kroos, ended in the round of 16: "I have played 106 times for Germany, there will be no more." He wrote about his decision. "I had already felt for a longer time that I would not be available for the WM 2022 in Qatar."
The Madness is that there has been this Toni Kroos, who led the DFB-Team for over ten years, for more than a decade he was part of Real Madrid's machine room. He went there after Bayern Munich had damaged him. With Munich and above all Uli Hoeneß, he received little recognition - despite the treble in 2013.
Kroos' playing style never fit the "German virtues." He was not fast, no two-footed player, his jersey was rarely full of blood or grass stains. Instead, he caressed the ball, saw spaces that others did not see. In Spain, they recognized it earlier. With the years, he adapted. He worked in vain on his tempo, but in his career twilight he became significantly more physical. On this damp summer evening in Stuttgart, he finally showed it to German fans.
Meanwhile, they understood him in Madrid. Five Champions League titles and 464 league games made him an icon for the Royals and his last appearance at the Santiago Bernabeu was emotional: The fans bid him farewell with a banner. They applauded, they held his jersey high, they cried. His teammates sent heart emojis and sad smileys to the world. And trainer Carlo Ancelotti paid homage to one of the best midfielders of all time, as he himself said.
Nagelsmann is inspired by the idea of Real Madrid's midfield. Kroos functioned well at Real because Ancelotti built the right midfield around him. Like a quarterback in football, he needs support. For a long time, he had the Brazilian team doctor Casemiro by his side, who covered his defensive weaknesses. Nagelsmann was inspired by the Real construct. The national team coach put a German Casemiro by his side. The worker, "Worker" in Nagelsmann's dictionary, was Robert Andrich. He took on the heavy labor and cleared the way for two-footed battles. The symbiosis worked: One grunted, the other directed with his feet.
Only a few weeks ago, almost forgotten, Kroos won the last championship with the Madrilenos. "That's great and sad at the same time," he said before the home EM in Herzogenaurach. He could only enjoy the triumph for a short time, a few days later he had to join the national team, preparing for the EM. He would not have come back if he had believed in the title, he clarified several times. For the big games, he returned, against Spain it was. They could have avoided the catastrophe, said Kroos. Whether it would have worked without him, no one will ever know.
Kroos said long before the game that he was not nostalgic. Because his body did not force him to, it was his head that decided. That's not quite right. In the end, it was the Spaniards who ended Toni Kroos' career with their two goals.
- Toni Kroos' return to the German national soccer team under the guidance of coach Julian Nagelsmann was a significant event, leading the team to the European Football Championship 2024 semifinals.
- During a crucial international match against Spain, Real Madrid's manager Carlo Ancelotti watched as Kroos displayed his resilience and fought fiercely, showing a side of himself he hadn't revealed before.
- Despite his impressive performance statistics, including the most passes and assists in the tournament, Kroos' contribution to the German team extended beyond numbers, offering calming encouragement during tense moments.
- As his career came to a close in the European Football Championship 2024, Kroos left an indelible mark on both Real Madrid and the German national soccer team, with his legacy continuing to inspire future generations of midfielders.
