Toni Kroos has been retiring for over a year, ending a sensational career at the football top – and at 10 years old at Real Madrid.
The 35 -year -old decision was strongly questioned at the time, but he continues to stick to it.
And in an interview with El Pais, Kroos confided in the reasons which pushed him to retire last summer, despite an exceptional individual season.
“I spent several months to think about it, I mean, I did not wake up one morning by saying suddenly:” You have to retire! ” No, I matured this decision very, for a very long time. The previous year, I had already thought of retiring, but I finally decided to renew my contract for an additional year with Real Madrid, which had insisted a lot. But that did not change my idea, which was always to retire like that, and fortunately, I succeeded.
I wanted to retire at a very high level
“I wanted to retire at a very high level. I think it is difficult to do better than what I did in my last season with Real Madrid. I left after winning the Liga and the Champions League. Bye.
“The best thing is to go to the top. We leave with a great feeling because it was we who made the decision, rather than reacting to a start on the touch because I was no longer as good or because I was no longer as important for the team as before … I preferred to start from myself. I wanted to avoid all of this. Neither my coach, nor my family, nor my body were going to tell me when to retire. »»
Real Madrid was touched by Kroos's retirement
Kroos has always said that his decision to retire last summer was the right one for him, but she had a very negative impact on Real Madrid, as he himself recognized in recent months. The Merengues had trouble filling his absence during the 2024-25 season, which finally prevented them from winning a major title.
