Sandro Wagner regrets DFB resignation: “I should have kept my feet still and waited for the tournament”
Sandro Wagner Germany 2018
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Ex-DFB striker Sandro Wagner is annoyed with the way he left the German national team.
Sandro Wagner later regrets his early retirement from the German national team. He revealed that in an interview with Toni and Felix Kroos in their podcast Just lups. “I should have kept my feet still and waited for the tournament,” said the 34-year-old, adding: “But that’s not me. That wasn’t me at the moment.”
Wagner had voluntarily resigned from the DFB team after he had not been nominated for the squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia by the then national coach Joachim Löw. The way he was sour.
“I was illegally in Italy and bought another house. We shouldn’t really be leaving Munich. Then I saw all the WhatsApp groups and Josh Kimmich called me and asked me: ‘Tell me, has Jogi already called ?'” the former striker explained. At this point he had not received any news. Only shortly before Munich Löw informed him on the phone that he was not taken into account.
At the same time, Wagner heard the clinking of a wine glass in the background. “I can’t get that out of my head. That was a situation in which I didn’t feel valued at all. Then I thought: I can’t look in the mirror anymore if I stick with it. But I would have the way cooler,” he said.
Wagner: Kroos? “Another world”
In addition, Wagner reported on the enormous pressure that prevails at Bayern. “Since the F youth, a number of players have been sorted out every year. Every year it was on the brink of whether I would stick with it,” he said, adding: “Once, in U17, they said to me: ‘Sandro, that It’s just not enough anymore’. Then I was lucky that I had a good game.”
Stefan Beckenbauer approached him at the time and said: “Come on Sandro, let’s try that again”. That’s why he continued.
Wagner had “two moments” in his youth, “when I wanted to stop playing football. Once when I saw Kevin-Prince Boateng at the tournament. Then I thought: Oops! And when I saw Toni Kroos training. That was it then it’s another world.”