Toni Kroos will take to the biggest stage of them all on Saturday. He will never play another club football match in his life. And to think that his decade of dominance at Real Madrid has arrived when it should have been at Bayern Munich.
Kroos joined Madrid from Bayern in 2014 for just £20 million. He was only 24 and had already won a World Cup. Why then did Bayern let him leave so young and so cheap?
Uli Hoeness, club president at the time, is the answer. He felt Kroos lacked the backbone to be a true top player and never forgave him for not taking a penalty in the shootout against Chelsea in the 2012 Champions League final.
Hoeness, the dashing former Germany international who survived a plane crash during his playing days and a prison sentence for tax evasion after retiring, is the power-hungry Bayern manager who never seemed to resemble Kroos.
A video recently circulated on social media of him addressing German reporters in 2007 after they had the audacity to suggest that the blotchy-faced 17-year-old Kroos might have been man of the match after coming on as a substitute. a UEFA Cup match against Red Star Belgrade in which his team lost 2–1, assisting the equalizer and scoring the winner.
Toni Kroos (photo) will play his last match for Real Madrid in the Champions League final on Saturday
Bayern Munich director Uli Hoeness (pictured) has apparently never forgiven Kroos for not taking a penalty in the 2012 Champions League final
Hoeness felt that Kroos (pictured) lacked the backbone to become a top footballer
‘Excuse me!’ replies an irate Hoeness. ‘Lucio was the best player today, not Toni Kroos. Let him stay sober.”
Hoeness’ suspicions that Kroos was too big for his boots took an added twist in 2012 when Bayern lost the Champions League final at their home stadium on penalties and Hoeness blamed Kroos for a perceived lack of courage.
Kroos had missed a penalty in the semi-final shootout against Real Madrid, which Bayern won. But he didn’t want to take a penalty in the final and when Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger both missed, Chelsea lifted the trophy.
“I was sure without me we would have five takers,” Kroos said afterwards. “And it would be better to have players who don’t bear the burden of missing a kick in the semi-final.”
It seemed that Hoeness did not forget or forgive. Kroos’ fate was sealed. He would never become a Bayern legend.
Bayern won the trophy the following season by beating Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but injury had ruled Kroos out. In 2013, Pep Guardiola arrived, as did new signing Mario Götze.
He came in as a top earner and Kroos – who shared an agent with Götze and therefore knew everything about his wages – tested the club’s decision to keep him by asking for similar treatment. He knew the answer before it arrived.
The midfielder (left) missed a penalty in the semi-final against Real Madrid in 2012
Kroos (front) had tested the club’s resolve over his wages but would eventually move to Real Madrid
You’re not a top player, so you don’t get top money, was the answer. And with Carlo Ancelotti now at Real Madrid and urging them to move for Kroos, the deal was completed after winning the World Cup in Brazil. Ten years later, Hoeness probably accepts that he was wrong and that Bayern’s monumental loss was Real Madrid’s spectacular gain.
Kroos has always gone his own way. The player who still cleans his own boots was speaking as Spain Under 21 star Gabri Veiga moved to the Saudi Pro League after just 50 appearances in La Liga.
He called the move ’embarrassing’ for such a young player and when his every touch was booed in Real Madrid’s subsequent Spanish Super Cup win in Riyadh, he simply tweeted: ‘That was fun today! Great crowd.’
It wasn’t the first time he excelled himself online. When a troll responded to a tweet about all the trophies the Kroos-Luka Modric-Casemiro midfield had won by saying: “Kroos is such an overrated man…” Kroos replied: “Yes, but don’t tell anyone.”
That midfield has since gone down as the best in Real Madrid’s history. On Saturday he will be alone in the starting line-up, with Modric now as a substitute and Casemiro no longer. The Brazilian once said about Kroos: ‘Real Madrid’s game always follows Toni’s pace. If he wants us to play slower, we will. If he wants us to play faster, we will. We follow him.’
At Wembley, Kroos’ metronome ticks in club colors for the last time. His farewell last week, complete with his children Leon, Amelie and Fin, all in tears with their number 8 shirts on the pitch, was as moving as it deserved.
The 34-year-old (right) would form one of the biggest midfield trios alongside Casemiro (centre) and Luka Modric (left)
A troll once criticized the Real Madrid midfield trio of Kroos, Modric and Casemiro on X (formerly Twitter) as ‘overrated’. But Kroos responded wittily
He will now leave the club having won a plethora of silverware and can add to his trophies at Wembley on Saturday.
His departure for Real Madrid last week was moving and also very deserved
His teammates lined up at the Bernabéu to give the midfielder a guard of honour
There was a guard of honor and a large banner behind one goal; Kroos, of course, hated the spotlight.
This is the player who, after winning the World Cup, would rather sit in the corner and take off his boots than be in the picture while his teammates posed with then German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Perhaps it was that reluctance to be in the spotlight 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 as he was taken off the field in that final league match at the Bernabeu.
As Ancelotti said earlier this week: ‘It would be fantastic if Kroos could cap it off by winning the Champions League. But he already has his place in the history of football.”
The fans also showed their appreciation and unveiled a banner that read: ‘Thank you legend’
Carlo Ancelotti (left) stated 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 last week at the age of 66 and this week it was the turn of Jose Luis Mendilibar, 63, to win the Conference League with Olympiacos.
Gasperini only got one really big job and it only lasted a few months: at Inter Milan in the 2011-2012 season.
Mendilibar can’t even claim that, despite having 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.
Jose Luis Mendilibar (pictured) claimed his second European in 12 months after winning the Europa Conference League with Olympiacos this week
Jadon Sancho (right) and Mats Hummels (left) are two Dortmund stars left out of this summer’s European Championship squad
Dortmund’s Euro omissions
Dortmund’s brilliant form at the end of the season took them to today’s final, but was not enough to get their three best players – Mats Hummels, Jadon Sancho and Ian Maatsen – to Euro 2024.
The departure of Ronald Koeman from Chelsea loanee Maatsen from his Dutch selection feels particularly hard. An extra point to prove for the trio tonight.
