Ten years ago, Toni Kroos boarded a spaceship. And in 2014 he left this small German world, moving – at the age of 24 – from Bayern Munich to Real Madrid. He closed the door and took off into other spheres, to the most famous club in the universe. He also closed his ears, it seemed, and only heard from afar what the bosses and colleagues he had left behind had to say. About football. But also about all the other things. And so he became, relatively quietly, the most successful German football player at a club abroad. Of all time. All of this tells a lot about football, but it is also the success story of an (East) German who set out to conquer the world. And now returns as a savior for one last tournament: the so-called home European Championship, the European Football Championship “in his own country”.
