Toni Kroos has a clear opinion about the German national team. © APA/afp / INA FASSBENDER

Kroos: “DFB miles away from the World Cup title”

Former World Cup winner Toni Kroos has not yet given up hope for a successful World Cup for the German national football team, despite recent poor performances against Slovakia and Northern Ireland.

September 09, 2025

From: dpa

"It's true that we're currently miles away from talking about the World Cup title. But: That wasn't this summer, but next summer. As things stand, we're miles away and really not in a good place, but in the summer, let's let the right players get fit..." said the 35-year-old in the podcast "Einfach mal Luppen" with his brother Felix.

The reason for his optimism is his experience with Real Madrid. He often heard, and rightly so, in September and October that the club wasn't a favorite for the Champions League this year. "In May, things often looked different," said Kroos, who has won the Champions League six times, five of them with Real.

Too few top international players

Nevertheless, the former midfield star, who ended his career in the summer of 2024 after the European Championship at home, also criticized the national team. He judged that they couldn't currently choose from a pool of 50 top international players. "If we go one step higher than international class, it will be very tight. With the games they have ahead of them, it should still be enough," Kroos concluded.

At the start of qualifying for next year's World Cup in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, national coach Julian Nagelsmann's team lost 0-2 in Slovakia and then struggled to a 3-1 victory against Northern Ireland. Attacking players Jamal Musiala and Kai Havertz, among others, were missing due to injury. Luxembourg is their third opponent in Group A.

“You can’t be eliminated from the group”

Kroos said there's a lack of self-confidence and therefore a lack of self-awareness, which makes everything seem inhibited. "I'm on the side—and this might hurt a bit more—that it's not easy for us to play with sufficient consistency against such opponents. We're not talking about the quality of each individual, but rather the whole," he explained.

Kroos remains confident of qualifying for the World Cup. "We're very lucky that we've been assigned a group in which it's impossible to be eliminated," he emphasized.