Dhe world club has a double presence. The FC Bayern women’s team arrived in Qatar on Tuesday. Like the soccer men of the German record champions, they are preparing for the second half of the season at the Aspire Academy facility. Women and men of a club in the same training camp – that is unique in German professional football. The team around Lea Schüller lives in the hotel “The Torch”, the men in the “Al Aziziyah Hotel”.
A special performance took place here on Wednesday afternoon. Joshua Kimmich commented for the first time after the preliminary round at the World Cup in Qatar last December. For the midfield boss, the training camp is a return to the place of failure: the Bayern hotel is just 50 kilometers from the Al Bayt Stadium, where Kimmich and the national team retired from the tournament after beating Costa Rica 4-2.
“I’m always available” – Müller rules out resignation from the national team
After the World Cup debacle, Thomas Müller ruled out resigning from the German national soccer team. “As long as I’m a professional, I’ll always be available when I’m needed,” said the 33-year-old.
Shortly after the final whistle, Kimmich spoke of the “most difficult day of my career” in the stadium catacombs. “I’m a little scared of really falling into a hole,” he said. “It’s not that easy for me personally to cope with. Because I am personally associated with the failure.”
In Doha, Kimmich explained how he overcame the World Cup trauma. And how much his family helped him. “Of course, the statements immediately after leaving were very emotional, because something like that affects me, because you have big goals, because we had big goals,” said Kimmich. “To be honest, I didn’t necessarily fall into a hole. I think that’s partly due to my three children. It was difficult to fall into any hole. You have other tasks there.”
In 2018, when the national team was also eliminated in the preliminary round at the World Cup in Russia, it was “almost a bit more difficult”. The national team will work through the loss of the World Cup in Qatar “and then we will hopefully attack from March”. Then the selection will start their preparations for the home European Championship 2024. Venues and opponents for the first international matches of the year between March 22nd and 28th have not yet been decided.
The tournament in Qatar, which was weak from a German point of view, is not something that can simply be forgotten and ticked off, said Kimmich. “Nevertheless, the motivation to be here again is huge. We now have other tasks ahead of us.” One should not quarrel with the past. The 27-year-old said with a wink to possible successes with Germany: “I just have to play until I’m 45.”
“I just really want to play football”
As a reason for the early end of the World Cup, Kimmich sees the lack of self-image that, like Italy before the EM 2021 or now Argentina, you have to work on a winning streak well before a tournament. “We have to strive for something like that. We must not only start when the next tournament starts, but already in March. We have to try to win games, develop self-confidence and self-image.”
Without the injured captain and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who will probably be out until the summer with a broken leg, Kimmich is even more challenged as a leading player in the national team and at Bayern. “I will continue to do it like in the past. In the end, performance on the pitch is what counts and that’s what I’m concentrating on,” said the professional. “I’ve always expected myself and the team to develop and play good football. In general, I just really enjoy football.”
Leon Goretzka is another representative of the “Class of 1995” for which the World Cup was the third disappointing tournament in a row. Unlike Kimmich, he has not given a press conference so far, only said in an interview on the club’s website: “Of course I needed some distance first. I won it on vacation, also thanks to my private environment, which is always there for me. The World Cup chapter is closed.”
Before the World Cup, he had made it clear on ZDF that he would not mind if his club did not extend the controversial sponsorship contract with Qatar Airways. At Bayern, this is said to have sometimes not gone down well. He and Kimmich are likely to be instrumental in Bayern’s successes this year.
“The first half of the season was one of my most stable,” said Kimmich. “We played good football in general. We had a bit of an earnings crisis, but it wasn’t like we had to change everything. We played a good first half of the season.” In terms of goal risk, he could still improve in the second half of the season. “But that also depends on the position. Another important issue is the balance between offense and defense.”
Kimmich travels back to Munich with his team on Thursday. On Friday they will welcome RB Salzburg in a friendly, and a week later Bayern will start the second half of the season with a Bundesliga game at pursuers RB Leipzig. “We will be put to the test right away,” said Kimmich.
Bayern hope that by then they will have signed a new goalkeeper as a temporary replacement for Neuer. The club would like to have Yann Sommer from Borussia Mönchengladbach. Leipzig coach Marco Rose said: “We assume that there is a goalkeeper in goal. And – very Bayern-like – also with a lot of quality.” In Qatar, Sven Ulreich stands in for the injured Neuer.
