Hansi Flick did not cheat. He told the truth and nothing but the truth, but most people misunderstood the truth. The day before the friendly against Colombia, the reporters wanted to know whether Champions League winner Ilkay Gündogan would be the captain, and Flick replied with an impassive expression: It is a good tradition in Germany to appoint the player with the most caps to the captaincy And that’s how he’ll keep it. Aha, thought the reporters, so Kimmich (78 caps) will take over the captaincy again, not Gündogan (66 caps). What nobody suspected at the time, because it was actually hardly conceivable: that Flick would take Kimmich out of the team – the young man he had helped to become amazingly oversized with a Michael-Jordan comparison a few days ago.
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