2024-08-21 07:37:02
The end of a 13 year old. This Monday, soccer player Ilkay Gündogan announced his international retirement in a message posted on X (formerly Twitter). This decision comes as the midfielder has 82 caps and 19 goals for the German outfit.
We are bitter in our choice
“I proudly look back with great pride on the 82 international matches played with my country. This is a number I could never have imagined when I made my national team debut in 2011,” he commented. Gündogan confirmed that his best memory was his captaincy in the last Euro season, where the Mannschaft was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Spain (2-1 ap).
“After all these years, we have managed to make the country proud of us again. This makes me very happy. (…) I thank all the fans, staff, coaches and teammates who have followed me on this journey,” he concluded.
Your work in selection also has a taste of unfinished business. Not selected during Germany’s national team at the end of the 2014 World Cup, Gündogan played in two World Cups – 2018 and 2022 – during which Germany crashed out of the competition in the first round. In 2018, he created a major controversy with Mesut Ozil. Both players – of Turkish origin – were shown the uniforms from their clubs to the acting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Passed Nuremberg, Dortmund, Manchester City, Gündogan has been playing for Barcelona since 2023.
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