Toni Kroos’ L’Equipe rating for the Champions League Final will leave you enraged
Real Madrid fans had hoped that the mainstream media would learn their lesson about underestimating the greatest club in the world. But even after securing their 14th Champions League with a clean sheet victory over Liverpool, the media still cannot help but disrespect Los Blancos, even some of the club’s stalwarts.
Toni Kroos is used to being overlooked by the media despite being one of the best midfielders in the history of the game. Literally. The German was masterful against Jurgen Klopp’s press, helping Real Madrid survive the early pressure and then dictated the play in the second half to help the Merengues see the final through.
Yet if you ask L’Equipe, his world-class performance, which I gave a 9 match rating, only merited a 3.
That’s right. A 3.
L’Equipe ratings used to be the most prestigious match ratings in the media. For example, nobody will forget Dusan Tadic getting a 10 for his monsterclass against our very own Real Madrid in the 2018/19 Champions League; one of the few true humiliations suffered by the Merengues in the Champions League knockouts.
But now, it seems as if L’Equipe’s nuance or, as Twitter would put it, “ball knowledge” merits a 0 out of 10 match rating.
It is astonishing to see Kroos receive a 3 and Mohamed Salah a 7. While Salah was a danger to Real despite the missed chances, how can a forward on a team with 0 goals be rated higher than a controlling midfielder who made zero mistakes and put in a good defensive shift against a pressing side?
What matters most, though, is that Toni Kroos is now a five-time winner of the Champions League and is recognized by Madridistas (well, the ones who aren’t hopelessly foolish, that is) and people who actually understand football as a world-class player.
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Maybe one day we will receive more respect and have more LaLiga-based analysts in the mainstream. Until then, we will sing the praises of Kroos and his teammates as loudly as possible.