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Leon Goretzka had to think a little about whether and how he should now express himself.

In 3-0 (2-0) in the World Cup qualification against Iceland, the Bayern professional had a very strong performance and took the lead.

Now, shortly after the final whistle, the midfielder missed his decisiveness for the first time that evening.

The midfielder of the German national team had just explained in an interview how the message that his team had tried to convey before the final whistle had come about.

All starting eleven wore a large white letter on their black T-shirt: "HUMAN RIGHTS" was to be read.

Goretzka revealed that everyone would have painted their own letter on the piece of cloth.

They wanted to set an example.

Want to use the big stage and the range that goes with it.

To show the values ​​you want to stand for.

So far, so good, so diffuse.

But now RTL reporter Laura Wontorra wanted to know what exactly the action meant.

What she stands for.

Lighthouse also against Iceland: Leon Goretzka shows reliably good performances with the national team

Source: dpa / Federico Gambarini

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Goretzka, known and valued for clear words, broad horizons and rhetorical adeptness, tried to buy time.

Of course, the signal was to be understood as a criticism of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The evening before, the Norwegian national team had already criticized the tournament itself and the conditions in the desert state with a message.

6,500 dead workers in Qatar

According to a report by the "Guardian", around 6,500 guest workers have died during the construction of the stadiums due to a lack of health and safety measures.

While the arenas have been completed, issues such as human rights, equality, freedom of expression and fair wages remain major construction sites.

Qatar's government, on the other hand, said that reforms in recent years have significantly improved the situation of workers.

Human rights activists also admit progress, but warn that the reforms are inadequately implemented.

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Using t-shirts to plead for the observance of human rights is one thing, but also verbally naming the addressee in the interview, but the other.

Especially since Goretzka's club has a special relationship with Qatar.

FC Bayern has long been criticized for its business relationships with the Arab country.

Qatar Airways is the main sponsor and also pays Goretzka's salary with it.

Most recently, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge defended his engagement in “WELT AM SONNTAG”.

So Goretzka knew only too well how thin the ice was that he was about to step on.

He had to succeed in keeping the measure without taking away the radiance of the symbolic message.

And it sounded like this:

“It was pretty clear, ahem.

We just, uh, talked about it in the team, uh.

Of course we also have, uh, the World Cup ahead of us, uh, there is always talk of it.

That, uh, we also want to make it clear to society that we are not, uh, that we are not, uh, ignoring that, but that we are very clear about the conditions that have to prevail, and uh, we have that today also tried to make it clear from our side. "

Even if he didn't say it “very clearly” in the end and Qatar remained anonymous, he showed quite impressively that the players deal with the topic and also have an opinion.

It is a shame that this obviously cannot be said more clearly and louder.