Football ex-national player
How Max Kruse forgot 75,000 euros in a taxi
Status: 07.03.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Max Kruse in autumn 2015. A trip to Berlin turned into a big nuisance
Quelle: picture alliance/Sven Simon/Rene Traut/SVEN SIMON
You can listen to our WELT podcasts here
In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.
The story is one of the legendary anecdotes of the Bundesliga. Almost ten years ago, Max Kruse forgot 75,000 euros in a Berlin taxi. Now he tells how this happened: “Back then I was even more susceptible to the female gender.”
Max Kruse was undoubtedly one of the most colorful personalities in German football in recent years. The striker has just ended his career and is now working on it. Most recently, the 35-year-old had a public argument with former national coach Joachim Löw about why Kruse had not been nominated for the 2014 World Cup. A visit from women during an international trip is said to have played a central role.
“We wanted to become world champions in football, not in poker,” said Löw, among other things (read more here). Which in turn leads to another anecdote from Kruse’s career. In the 2015/16 season Kruse played for VfL Wolfsburg. And it’s no secret that the nightlife in VW City entices young football professionals to make the manageable journey to Berlin on their days off. This was also the case with Kruse back then.
also read
He visited a casino with some friends. If you earn a lot of money, you can also bet a lot. And if you’re lucky, you’ll win a lot. And so it happened that Kruse left the gambling venue with 75,000 euros that he had put in his backpack, he says in the current edition of his podcast “Flatterball”, which he talks to Martin Harnik (36), also a former professional. operates. He called a taxi and was no longer alone. It was less about his friends and more about other company.
“I filed a report,” says Kruse
“Back then I was even more susceptible to the female sex,” reports Kruse, who is now in good hands and married. Since he had double company, it became cramped in the back seat: “I was sitting in the back seat with two women, so I didn’t have my eyes on the backpack. I had to sit in the middle and thought to myself: Backpack in the trunk isn’t a problem.”
also read
It was early in Berlin, Kruse continues: “We got out for breakfast and then I forgot about it. I was just in another world. I only noticed it 45 minutes later, after I wanted to pay.” But by then it was already too late, the backpack and its contents were somewhere in Berlin: “Of course I was annoyed. I filed a report and tried to find the taxi driver.”
also read
This was in vain and led to the next trouble. The story became public through the advertisement and became known to his employer, which meant additional costs for Kruse. “We worked through this internally in a one-on-one discussion between Max, the trainer and me. We will sanction that,” said the then Wolfsburg manager Klaus Allofs to “Bild”. Apparently Kruse had to pay a five-figure fine.
It would certainly have been easier to spend this amount in the casino. But then the Bundesliga would be poorer for a really good anecdote.
