The anticipated return of Toni Kroos to the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB) team is undoubtedly a significant moment for the national coach. It will pose an intense challenge as he will need to restructure the midfield and manage the new dynamics that come with such a change. Toni Kroos, with his vast experience, can certainly share insights into how complex and potentially dangerous this process can be.
Sandro Wagner came close to experiencing this scenario. His poster had already been prominently displayed in the Rungg sports zone, located in picturesque Eppan in South Tyrol. The poster, featuring a larger-than-life black and white photograph of Wagner, was hung on a fence at the entrance of the training ground. However, despite all this, Wagner didn’t make the cut for the squad that national coach Jogi Löw took to the training camp for the 2018 World Cup. Instead, Nils Petersen, whose photo was conspicuously absent, was chosen. In retrospect, maybe the error in displaying the wrong picture was a forewarning. As we now know, the roots of the team’s disappointing performance at the tournament in Russia can be traced back to this training camp. This was not only due to the fact that Jogi Löw once mistakenly called the new striker “Nils Pettersson”.
