What do you see when you look into the eyes of your fellow players at this tournament?
Joy and great motivation. And a lot of solidarity. Solidarity on the pitch, but also off the pitch.
You said in November that you look at your teammates’ faces during a game because you want to see who is confident, who really wants the ball.
Yes. And you can see that in the way we play. That it’s becoming more fluid, that we’re clicking more and more. The more often you play together in this constellation, the more comfortable you feel on the pitch, because at some point you feel like you can play anywhere blind and know: OK, there’s a colleague there and he knows what to do with it. That can be a great quality for us at this European Championship.
Things looked very different in November. What has happened since then?
Of course, that also has to do with results, the victories in March against two really strong opponents, and the start to the tournament also helped, it really couldn’t have gone better. But personally, I also feel a lot of trust from the coach and the coaching team. They give a certain amount of freedom, and everyone is fully on board.
Even the players who are a little behind are just as happy for the guys on the pitch as if they were there themselves. It’s great to be part of this group, that’s why we play football, for these shared moments. And in the end it can make all the difference. At the moment I have the feeling that with such a special atmosphere we can go very far.
Sounds like it’s a noticeable difference from previous tournaments.
Definitely. If we combine that with difficult moments, like the ones we experienced in the Switzerland game, and make the best of them, then that’s a combination that can be dangerous for many others.
In your half of the tournament tree, alongside Denmark, your opponent in the round of 16 this Saturday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship, on ZDF and on Magenta TV), you will also find Spain, Portugal and France. What path does the team have to take to grow in the tournament: refine what it has played so far, or work more on variability, discover other possibilities?
First of all, we now have to deal with the situation that every 90 minutes could be the last. That is a lot of pressure, and mentality will play a big role. If you look at Real Madrid, the most successful club team of the last decade and even longer, the way they never panicked and always kept calm is remarkable. You also have to recognise when the momentum is on your side and when you really have to punish your opponent. Otherwise, you will quickly be punished yourself.
Even Manchester City had to learn that…
I’ve had many knockout games in my life where we were the clear favorites and then we were knocked out because we made mistakes.
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How do you, as captain, ensure that this does not happen?
I want to make people aware that there are phases in which we are a little behind. This is quickly interpreted negatively from the outside, but that is completely normal. We are a possession team. But we also have to be able to cope with an opponent having the ball for a minute, for 15 or 20 passes, without us getting nervous.
Sometimes we lose patience, don’t recognize the right moment to press, arrive too late and run even further behind, almost a little panicked. Keeping calm and accepting that is a step that you have to take mentally. At Manchester City, it was a process that lasted one or two years.
With Toni Kroos you have found the right person for the job.
Yes! If anyone embodies that, it’s Toni. Our experience will be crucial in these fifty-fifty games. Nuances are often decisive, and losing your head can be fatal. That is sometimes more important than what happens on the pitch in terms of football.
You said after the Hungary game that you and Toni Kroos only need to look at each other for a millisecond to know what has to happen.
Yes, because he is a similar type of player. That’s why I often know what he is thinking and what he is planning. Where are the opponents, where is Toni positioned, where is space created? You already know that. The better you know the characteristics of a teammate, the easier it is to fantasize about what he might do next in his head, which two options he would ideally consider. With a player of Toni’s quality, I know that one will definitely happen, and I try to cover one, while my teammates have to cover the others.
“Toni has the qualities to come out of cover sometimes,” says Gündoğan about Kroos.picture alliance/dpa
But you really don’t talk to each other much, do you?
Let’s put it this way: We are now so experienced in recognizing game situations that we don’t need to talk to each other all the time.
If you look at the axis of the German team: Antonio Rüdiger, Toni Kroos and you are three rather quiet players. Isn’t that unusual?
I don’t feel like we need someone on the team who is always shouting. You have to know everyone’s personality and be able to deal with it. In the end, it has to be authentic.
Gundogan with Ehefrau Sara ArfaouidpaDoes your role change if Toni Kroos is man-marked more, like against Switzerland?
First of all, it’s the same role because nothing has changed in my position. I still want to occupy the space between the players in the opposition’s midfield and try to create space there. For myself and for teammates. Otherwise, everyone has to take on a bit more responsibility.
Toni has the qualities to come out of cover sometimes, and even if it’s just for a second or two, he can do something with it. But of course it doesn’t last for 90 minutes. That’s where the rest of us are called upon, in the six positions, the defenders in the build-up play, and of course me too. I like to do that, like in the last ten minutes against Switzerland, when I moved back one position.
In the German game we see you as the risk manager. Can you relate to this term?
I believe that not only I, but all of us always have to weigh up the risks. The most important thing is to know when to take the risk. As a winger, you shouldn’t cross when there is only one striker and five defenders in the box. These are small things that you have to weigh up in a very short space of time. And these small things make the difference.
But I don’t just have to weigh up the risk, I also have to be prepared for what happens if things go wrong, if we lose the ball. We then have to be well coordinated and switch to winning the ball together. Otherwise we’ll be counterattacked, as happened once or twice in the first half against Hungary. We then had to sprint back 50, 60 meters. That costs energy. And saving that energy – that’s also risk management.
What we also mean by risk manager: Do you take fewer risks so that Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz can take more risks?
I have to take risks myself. But if I notice that we have tried to play a risky pass three or four times in a row and it hasn’t worked out, I try to be the one who maintains the balance.
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Do you have to look at Musiala and Wirtz a little longer to know what they are up to?
Yes, maybe a little longer. They are different types of players: artists, magicians. They do things that are unexpected – not just for the opponent, but sometimes for their own team too. They have this ability to make a difference in a matter of seconds with their decisions. They have already shown that in this tournament and scored goals. Jamal in particular has added that to his game.
They called him their “foster son.”
Yes. We get on well, very well in fact. We spend a lot of time together, laugh together. I am very close with Leroy (Sané, editor’s note), and Jamal is also very close with Leroy because they both play in Munich. That’s why we bonded quickly. For me it’s even better that we are very close to each other on the pitch, that we can combine and play together. He is a great footballer, the best we have. And perhaps the most important one too.
After the history with the national team, after the many disappointments, do you feel particularly lucky to now be able to play in this tournament: in Germany, in this format?
That was the goal. And right now it’s a great joy. Now the tournament is really getting started. We want to continue to be successful. Because we want to make people happy. But also because we want to live up to our standards. And because I want to live up to my standards.
This text comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
They say that Germans finally understand how İlkay Gündoğan plays football. Does that mean anything to you?
Of course that’s nice. I think that those who have accompanied me at the club already knew that. I am not solely responsible for the success of the national team. And I was not solely responsible for the failure either. But I was an essential part of the team. I’m just not a Messi who can carry an entire team on his own. We don’t have one of those. That’s why it only works as a collective. And the collective is currently better than it has been for a long time.
Do you hope that Germany will recognize something else in you, with your role and your biography: something that could help to hold society together?
To be honest, I’m not thinking about that too much at the moment. We’re here to be successful in sports. But if we keep playing like this, I do believe that it will have an effect on the country, on the people in the country, on the way we live together. Even though it was a long time ago, I still have to think about the feelings after the 2006 World Cup. Bringing people together – football has always had that quality.
The great atmosphere at the European Championships is one thing, but on the other hand there is everyday life and things in it that make you feel uneasy. Do you too?
Shift to the right, intolerance, xenophobia.
If it was something that hadn’t been there before, then yes. But in the world that I know, it has always existed in certain phases – sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker. And I assume that it will unfortunately always exist. Accordingly, it is not so easy to fight against it. And it is not our job.
We should think about sport first, not the other way around. That hasn’t helped us in the past. If things go well in sport, we can think about how we can use that for everything else. Until then, our football can perhaps make people a little happier. And hope that this has an impact on how we live together.
What face do you see when you look at Germany in the summer of 2024?
One of his best in a long time. I only find out what’s happening on the streets through social media, through photos and videos. But the day after the Scotland game, my friends wrote to me and called me. They said: Hey, we watched the game on the streets with big screens, the atmosphere was amazing, keep it up! That’s what we wanted and want. Preferably until July 14th. We’ll do our best to make that happen.
