At the start of the World Cup year, Joshua Kimmich took responsibility for the national football team and himself with critical words.
“Since 'we' started, we just haven't made it.
From 2018 it was simply not good anymore," said the FC Bayern Munich professional in the DFB program for the first test international match in 2022 against Israel on Saturday (8:45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for international matches and on ZDF).
Kimmich will not be present in Sinsheim because of the forthcoming birth of his third child.
With a view to the World Cup in Qatar in late autumn, however, he has clear goals.
"Potential is just theory," said the 27-year-old.
"We also have to bring it onto the pitch." Like the DFB captain and club colleague Manuel Neuer, the goal for the 64-time international is to win the World Cup.
"I know we can do better," said Kimmich.
"I know we're capable of winning the title," he added, but stressed self-critically: "We can't always just say how talented we are, how many of us play important roles in top clubs and then we don't get it right again .”
Kimmich reached the semi-finals in his first tournament with the DFB-Elf at the EM 2016, in 2017 he won the Confederations Cup with a young team.
At the 2018 World Cup and the European Championship in the previous year, disappointments followed with the elimination in the preliminary round and in the round of 16.
Kimmich is still cautious about the subsequent upswing under national coach Hansi Flick with seven wins in seven games.
"You have to take a closer look and evaluate which teams we played against."
After all: "We found our way better after the European Championship, that's for sure," said Kimmich.