The summer of 2014 was for Toni Kroos (he was 24 years old) a moment of happiness and also of a change that would bring him many successes from then until today. The new world champion packed his bags for Spain and left behind eight years in the ranks of Bayern (with the break of the year he spent on loan at Leverkusen) to sign for Madrid. The rest is the story of one of the most profitable signings in the history of the white club. 25 million euros that over time in Munich they regretted and in Valdebebas have ended up looking like pocket change…
Kroos’ contract with Bayern ended a year later and, in the absence of an agreement to renew, the club he joined at the age of 16 opted to transfer him. Sold or undersold for 25 million? Within the Bavarian entity at first they assumed that they had done what they had to do. “Kroos did not want to renew. He would have been free in 2015 without having to pay any release clause. Therefore, transferring him ahead of time was the right decision,” said Karl Hopfner, then president of Bayern, weeks following the operation. Years later the assessment was different: “It was a mistake to let him leave,” Matthias Sammer, sports director at the time of the operation, acknowledged in 2018.
Kroos’s agent, Volker Struth, recalled the sequence of events in 2021. “Since September 2013, Bayern wanted to extend the contract. He was offered six million per season. But I knew that they were already paying 10 million to Götze. So we ask for the same thing, 10 million.” They didn’t give them to them. There was one last twist in the script that paved the way for his arrival at the Bernabéu: the dismissal of David Moyes as coach of Manchester United. His contract with the Old Trafford club was drawn up and Toni’s signature was missing.
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And that was how Kroos ended up dressing in white and writing pages of glory as a Real Madrid fan. Ten seasons, 459 games and 21 titles, including four Champions Leagues (he had previously won another with Bayern). Tonight will be his third visit with Madrid to what was his home (he won 1-2 the two previous times). Now, immersed in the doubt – perhaps decided, but not revealed – of whether he will continue for another year setting the pace of Ancelotti’s team’s game, he threatens his former team once more.
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