His children saved Joshua Kimmich from the tournament depression after the messed up World Cup.

"Honestly, I didn't fall into a hole, it's thanks to my three children," said the Bayern Munich professional on Wednesday in a good mood at the German record champions' training camp in Qatar.

The 27-year-old said of his role as a father: "It was difficult to fall into any hole.

You have other tasks there.”

The 74-time national player spoke in Doha for the first time after the World Cup on December 1st.

Immediately after the 4-2 win against Costa Rica, which was not enough to qualify for the World Cup round of 16, Kimmich was in the stadium in Al Chaur and spoke of the "most difficult day of my career".

He was "a bit afraid of really falling into a hole," he said, even emotionally touched.

Now he confessed that there was no point in "quarreling all the time about the missed opportunity", that he had big goals with Bayern, both nationally and internationally.

“At the end of the day, football is also a lot of fun.

I'm very, very interested in football."

In 2018, when the German national team was also eliminated in the preliminary round of the World Cup, it was “almost a bit more difficult”, said Kimmich in the Munich training camp in Qatar.

The national team will work through the tournament internally "and then we will hopefully attack from March".

Then the national team will start preparing for the home European Championship in 2024. Venues and opponents for the first international matches of the year between March 22nd and 28th have not yet been decided.

"Of course, the statements immediately after the game was eliminated were very emotional, because something like that affects me, because you have big goals, because we had big goals," said Kimmich.

You were eliminated early again and that was very bitter overall.

"Because you don't have too many chances - especially with the national team," said the midfield leader.

"It's not something you can just forget and tick off.

Nevertheless, the motivation to be here again is huge.

We now have other tasks ahead of us," said Kimmich.

After all, Oliver Kahn is certain that the leading player at FC Bayern and in the national team will “bring top performances again”.

“Joshua will go ahead and attack here as always.

Getting even better after such experiences is what distinguishes the champion," said the CEO of Sport Bild.