Former Real Madrid center midfielder Toni Kroos is one of the greatest players of all time and has six Champions League titles to prove it, ruling over the Santiago Bernabeu with a control over the middle of the park like none other. He was a coach on the field and a real general for the Merengues year over year and has been missed greatly.
So when the 2014 World Cup winner - and leading player at the tournament by performance index - speaks on the current game, everyone who wants to learn something or hear inconvenient truths will open their ears to listen.
Kroos has been very critical - and rightfully so - of the German national team at this World Cup, and their early exit to an underwhelming Paraguay side really drove that point home. He lit into the top players of Germany a little bit, crticizing them by saying that while they have the potential to be world class, there is not a single player who can decide a game for them.
Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala could not decide games
The legendary Real Madrid midfielder said, via Madrid Xtra, "Germany's elimination? We currently don't have a single world-class player. We have players with world-class potential, but that doesn't mean they are world-class. The world-class players are deciding the World Cup matches and leading the top goalscorers' list."
While these remarks could go at a lot of players, Toni Kroos is perhaps most pointedly referring to Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala, two young star attacking midfielders with Bundsliga pedigrees who were not decisive at all in this World Cup. They stat padded key passe and dribbles completed but were unable to rise to the occasion, grab the game by the scruff of the neck, or make things happen when it mattered most.
Musiala and Wirtz are coming off poor seasons, and while Wirtz was adjusting to the Premier League and Musiala coming off serious injury, neither player has been particularly impressive and both have been clearly rungs below the likes of the players leading the scorers list that Kroos is referring to - players like Real Madrid's own Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior, and Kylian Mbappe.
A lot of fans around the world have tried to say that Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala are better than Bellingham, who is one of Kroos's favorites from working with him in Madrid in the 2023/24 season, because they are more creative or more technical.
But those are all theoretical words. The reality is that Jude Bellingham decides games all on his own, he elevates his teams, and he makes plays offensively and defensively to move the needle. Musiala and Wirtz are too passive, not willing to rise to the moment, and too busy caught up in the theoretical. Kroos called them out and reminded people that there are levels to this game and that someone like Jude who decides games is at the top.
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