World champion in 2014, a total of 121 international matches, ten goals in World Cup tournaments: Thomas Müller can look back on a great career in the national team. After the preliminary round in Qatar, the attacker is now pondering publicly whether he will still slip on the DFB jersey in the future.
In his own words, Thomas Müller wants to take the time to assess the extremely disappointing performance of the German national soccer team at the World Cup in Qatar. “It’s more opaque than usual, there are more contradictions. It’s more difficult at this World Cup to filter and correctly interpret what has been experienced,” wrote the 33-year-old on Instagram. “The big question in life: what was the reason? Despite all the experience with great successes and also crashing defeats, I will need some time this time to be able to classify everything.”
The professional from FC Bayern Munich had already given a kind of farewell speech on his time in the national team after his departure from the World Cup last Thursday on television. “I did it with love. You can be sure of that. And I have to see everything else first,” said Müller in the Al-Khor stadium. But then he announced that he first wanted to consult his wife Lisa and national coach Hansi Flick. Müller had been in the starting line-up for all three preliminary round games, but only regained his fitness shortly before the start of the tournament and was apparently far from his best.
“The sting is brutally deep, felt deeper than usual,” Müller wrote on Instagram. “It was a wave of emotions. Anticipation, ambition, politics, rejection, defeat at the start, hope and recognition after game 2, then, with our first tournament win, we were eliminated at the same time and with it the complete catastrophe.” He thanked all supporters.
The 2014 world champion left it open when a decision would be made as to whether the 121st international match might have been his last. For his contribution, Müller provided nine pictures from the World Cup games – from jubilation to disappointment, everything was there. Apparently, the ten-time World Cup goalscorer returned home with a feeling of helplessness.