Enlarge image
Bayern Munich Honorary President Uli Hoeneß
Photo: Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images
Bayern Munich's honorary president Uli Hoeneß has once again gone on a confrontation course with Toni Kroos and has spoken out against a comeback of the 2014 World Cup winner in the German national football team. "That would be quite a Titanic signal," said the 71-year-old on Monday on "Sport und Talk im Hangar 7" on ServusTV, as reported by the Kronen Zeitung. The Real Madrid midfielder is "an outstanding footballer, but I don't think he can save German football," Hoeneß continued.
In the past, Hoeneß had already spoken out against Kroos in the DFB team with pithy words. "Toni Kroos has no place in this football. (...) His way of playing is totally over," he had said in 2021 on Sport1's "Doppelpass" after the European Championship exit and the subsequent DFB resignation of the long-time top performer.
National coach Julian Nagelsmann had recently described a Kroos return as an "interesting thought" in the ZDF sports studio. According to the »Bild« newspaper, the 33-year-old can actually imagine a comeback at the home European Championship next year.
"That's how you open a barrel you don't need"
Record international Lothar Matthäus also sees no need for Kroos in the DFB team. "If Kroos could play full-back – okay. But in midfield, the German team has the least need. That's how you open a barrel that you don't need," Matthäus wrote in his column for the pay-TV channel Sky: "Kroos isn't a clearer in front of the defence either, but if Nagelsmann suddenly sees Kroos as the holding six, there will be a lot of discussion again."
Kroos won the Champions League with FC Bayern in 2013. After turning down a contract extension in Munich, the midfielder moved to Real Madrid in 2014, where he has been one of the top performers ever since. With Real, he won the Champions League four more times, something no other German footballer has ever achieved.
cev/dpa