Toni Kroos retires on Saturday on the biggest stage of all. He will never play a club football match again in his life. And to think that his decade of dominance has come at Real Madrid, when he should have been at Bayern Munich.
Kroos joined Madrid from Bayern for just £20 million in 2014. He was just 24 years old and had already won a World Cup. So why did Bayern let him leave so young and for so little money?
Uli Hoeness, then club president, is the answer. He thought Kroos lacked the backbone to be a top player and he never forgave him for not taking a penalty in the shootout against Chelsea in the 2012 Champions League final.
Hoeness, the rambunctious former Germany international who survived a plane crash during his playing days and a prison term for tax evasion after he retired, is the powerful Bayern executive who never seemed to warm to Kroos.
A video recently circulated on social media of him haranguing German journalists in 2007 after they had the temerity to suggest that the pimply-faced 17-year-old Kroos might have been man of the match after coming on as a substitute in a UEFA Cup match against Red Star Belgrade in which his team lost 2-1 and helping to equalize and scoring the winning goal.
Toni Kroos (pictured) will play his last game for Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
Bayern Munich executive Uli Hoeness (pictured) apparently never forgave Kroos for failing to take a penalty in the 2012 Champions League final.
Hoeness believed Kroos (pictured) lacked the backbone to become a top football player.
‘Excuse me!’ -answers a furious Hoeness. “Lucio was the best player today, not Toni Kroos. Let him stay with his feet on the ground.
Hoeness’s suspicions that Kroos was too big for his boots were given a further twist in 2012 when Bayern lost the Champions League final at their home stadium on penalties and Hoeness blamed Kroos for an alleged lack of courage.
Kroos had missed a penalty in the semi-final shootout against Real Madrid, which Bayern won. But he refused to take a penalty in the final and when Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger missed, Chelsea lifted the trophy.
“I was sure that without me we would have five interested parties,” Kroos said afterwards. “And it would be better to have players who didn’t carry the weight of having missed a shot in the semifinal.”
It seemed that Hoeness did not forget or forgive. Kroos’ fate was cast. He was never going to become a Bayern legend.
Bayern won the trophy the following season, beating Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but injury had ruled Kroos out. In 2013 Pep Guardiola arrived, as did new signing Mario Götze.
He arrived as one of the highest earners and Kroos, who shared an agent with Gotze and so knew everything about his salary, tested the club’s resolve to retain him by asking for a similar deal. He knew the answer before it arrived.
The midfielder (left) missed a penalty in the semi-final shootout against Real Madrid in 2012.
Kroos (striker) had tested the club’s resolve on his salary, but would eventually move to Real Madrid.
You’re not a top player, that’s why you don’t get the best money, was the response. And with Carlo Ancelotti now at Real Madrid and urging them to sign Kroos, the deal was done after he won the World Cup in Brazil. Ten years later, Hoeness presumably accepts that he was wrong and that Bayern’s monumental loss has been a spectacular gain for Real Madrid.
Kroos has always followed his own path. The player who still cleans his boots spoke out as Spain under-21 star Gabri Veiga moved to the Saudi Pro League after just 50 La Liga games.
He called the move by such a young player “shameful” and when his every touch was booed in Real Madrid’s subsequent Spanish Super Cup in Riyadh, he simply tweeted: “That was fun today!” Incredible crowd.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d outdone himself online. When a troll responded to a tweet about all the trophies the Kroos-Luka Modric-Casemiro midfield had won, saying ‘Kroos is such an overrated man…’ Kroos replied: ‘Yes, but don’t tell anyone.’ ‘.
Since then, that midfield has become the best in Real Madrid history. On Saturday it will be only him in the starting eleven, with Modric now as a substitute and Casemiro long gone. The Brazilian once said of Kroos: “Real Madrid’s game always follows Toni’s rhythm.” If he wants us to play slower, we do it. If he wants us to play faster, we do it. We followed him.’
Kroos’ metronome will sound for the last time at Wembley, in the club’s colors. His farewell last week, with his children Leon, Amelie and Fin crying with their number 8 jerseys on the field, was as moving as it was deserved.
The 34-year-old (right) would form one of the best midfield trios alongside Casemiro (centre) and Luka Modric (left).
A troll had once criticized Real Madrid’s midfield trio of Kroos, Modric and Casemiro as “overrated” on X (formerly Twitter). But Kroos gave a witty response
He will now leave the club having won a host of titles and could add to his trophy haul at Wembley on Saturday.
His expulsion from Real Madrid last week was moving and also well deserved.
His teammates lined up at the Bernabéu to give the midfielder a guard of honor.
There was an honor guard and a huge banner behind a goal; Kroos, of course, hated being the center of attention.
This is the player who, after winning the World Cup, preferred to sit in a corner taking off his boots rather than appear in the photograph while his teammates posed with the then German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Perhaps it was this reluctance to be the center of attention that Hoeness mistook for a lack of character; that willingness not to follow the crowd that he mistook for arrogance.
“Thank you for everything,” Kroos said in Ancelotti’s ear when he was substituted in that last league match at the Bernabéu.
As Ancelotti said earlier this week: “For Kroos to sign by winning the Champions League would be fantastic.” But it already has its place in the history of football.”
The fans also showed their gratitude, unveiling a banner that read: ‘Thank you legend.’
Carlo Ancelotti (left) claimed earlier this week that Kroos (right) already has his place in football history.
Age is just a number
Gian Piero Gasperini won the Europa League at the age of 66 last week and this week it was the turn of José Luis Mendilibar, 63, to win the Conference League with Olympiacos.
Gasperini only got one really important job and it lasted only a few months: at Inter Milan in the 2011-12 season.
Mendilibar can’t even claim that, although he has already won two European trophies in 12 months after winning the Europa League with Sevilla last season.
And Carlo Ancelotti could give ‘Grey Power’ another chance today if he wins his fifth Champions League at Wembley, at the age of 64.
José Luis Mendilibar (pictured) won his second European Championship in 12 months after winning the Europa Conference League with Olympiacos this week.
Jadon Sancho (right) and Mats Hummels (left) are two Dortmund stars who were left out of the squad for this summer’s Euro Cup.
Dortmund’s omissions in the Euro Cup
Dortmund’s brilliant late-season form has taken them to today’s final, but it has not been enough to take their three best players (Mats Hummels, Jadon Sancho and Ian Maatsen) to Euro 2024.
For Ronald Koeman to leave Chelsea loanee Maatsen out of his Dutch team feels especially harsh. An extra point to prove for the trio tonight.