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Max Kruse in the SC Paderborn jersey
Photo:
Daniel Lakomski / Jan Huebner / IMAGO
The escapades of former national player Max Kruse were not the main reason for former national coach Joachim Löw for his retirement before the 2014 World Cup.
"The truth is: He simply wasn't good enough," said Löw in an interview with "Bild".
The former Bundesliga professional had his qualities as a player.
"But Max would sometimes have been better off in the Uwe Seeler traditional team because the pace and his dynamism in the game were simply a bit too little," explained Löw.
Kruse recently reported in a podcast that an incident before an international match in England was the reason he was not considered for the 2014 World Cup, in which the German team won the title in Brazil.
At that time, the now 35-year-old was caught visiting women in his hotel room without permission.
The way the national team's sporting leadership treated him afterwards was hypocritical, said Kruse.
»There was one or two things you could perhaps tell.
“Things like that in the hotel have happened before,” said Löw about Kruse’s account.
But that wasn't the reason for Kruse's ejection.
»The reasons were performance-related.
Not what happened in the hotel," said Löw.
Kruse played a total of 14 international matches for the DFB in the senior national team between 2013 and 2015.
He also played for Germany at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, but the team was eliminated after the preliminary round.
At the club, Kruse played for Werder Bremen, FC St. Pauli, SC Freiburg, Union Berlin and VfL Wolfsburg, among others.
In December 2023, after a stint in the second division at SC Paderborn, Kruse ended his active career with an early contract termination.
ara/dpa