With only a few minutes left to play, the crowd at Lyon’s Groupama Stadium sang the Marseillaise, the anthem that heralds great battles and the day of glory that has finally arrived. On Saturday evening, the text didn’t quite match the images that the game provided down on the lawn, the French were 2-0 down against Germany, but what the heck: you can sing a song like that to yourself.
The many-voiced choir in the main stand suddenly fell silent when the player with the number eight left the field in the 89th minute. The audience rose and applauded. However, it wasn’t one of their own that it was celebrating. It was Toni Kroos, the defense chief of the German national team.
It is rare for an opponent’s player to be celebrated in football stadiums. Sometimes at farewell games or when someone drags themselves off the pitch limping. This is an encouraging applause. Toni Kroos, however, walked upright towards the sideline. That only led to one conclusion: the applause was exclusively for his playing skills.
Even Julian Nagelsmann, the German national coach, found it difficult to describe it on Saturday evening. Where to start when this Kroos has pretty much everything in his repertoire? The long, spectacular passes like the one to Florian Wirtz, which made it 1-0 in the eighth second. The short, sharp balls with which he speeds up the game. The soft, slow balls with which he slows down the pace. Plus corners and free kicks, hit with centimeter precision.
Nagelsmann’s words seemed like a rhetorical capitulation to the master’s entire oeuvre. He said: “The ball is in good hands with Toni.”
The statistics showed 143 ball contacts for Kroos, more than for any other player that evening, and 95 percent of his passes reached their target. What the numbers didn’t mention, however, was that Kroos provided each of his passes with a message about how to handle the ball that was delivered. As if a yellow Post-it note had been stuck to the ball, the offensive players Havertz, Musiala and Wirtz in particular knew what they had to do. “We are very happy that Toni is back,” said Florian Wirtz, who was given plenty of passes by Kroos. “Toni gives us stability.”
What was astonishing was the calmness and self-confidence with which Kroos controlled the game. Just as if the resignation hadn’t happened three years ago. Kroos tirelessly carried the ball back and forth between attack and defense. Even when under great pressure, he hardly made any mistakes and always knew who to send his passes to.
It could not have been predicted that Kroos would dominate the German game so much. Nagelsmann had persuaded Kroos, 34, to make a comeback because he was looking for someone to organize the defense. The test game against World Cup-era France has now shown that Kroos is also the director who initiates the attacks. Ilkay Gündogan, the captain, was actually intended for this role. Gündogan said last week that his job was to ensure “the right balance” in the game of the “young magicians” (meaning Wirtz and Musiala).
In the game against France he remained pale. Not because he made a lot of mistakes – there simply doesn’t seem to be any room for Gündogan in Kroos’ system. Havertz, Wirtz and Musiala collect the balls from Kroos’ midfield and then rush forward. You don’t need another informant.
So where to go with Gündogan? That is the question that Nagelsmann will have to answer at the end of May. The team then meets for a six-day European Championship training camp in Blankenhain near Weimar. And then Leroy Sané will also be back in the squad, who is missing from the current course because he is still suspended due to an assault. Sané also sees himself as a regular player on the offensive; he can also go at the pace that Wirtz (20) and Musiala (21) set in the team. Gündogan can’t do it. He is the man for the clever, well-tempered pass, not a pinball player like the boys on the team.
What Gündogan can use for himself is his captaincy. A captain has to play, that’s an unwritten rule in football. After goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was seriously injured in a skiing accident in December 2022, the then national coach Hansi Flick made Gündogan the leader. Julian Nagelsmann took over the personnel and now has to realize that the recently unsettled team is strengthening itself under Toni Kroos. It is he who makes the people around him so much better, who gives them support and orientation. Gündogan, who seemed to have finally found his place in the team since the trip to the USA in autumn 2023, namely on the offensive, is in danger of becoming homeless again.
Next Tuesday, in the friendly against the Netherlands (8:45 p.m., RTL), Gündogan will appear again together with Wirtz and Musiala. And who knows: Maybe Toni Kroos will also use his passes to give Ilkay Gündogan a suitable position on the pitch. Kroos, the great spatial interpreter, can currently do everything.
