This book is approached with mixed feelings. Which is because it represents a very nice punchline to a very unpleasant story. The whole thing started when ZDF sports reporter Nils Kaben asked football world champion Toni Kroos questions immediately after the Champions League final in May last year that the Real Madrid midfielder found inappropriate in the hour of triumph.
Which wouldn’t have been so bad if Kroos hadn’t snapped at the journalist in front of the TV camera. “You have now had 90 minutes to think of sensible questions. Honest. And now you’re asking me two stupid questions,” Kroos raged, before he ended the short interview without answering the third question and disappeared with a grumpy voice saying “really, really bad.” Regardless of the quality of the Kaben questions about Real’s 1-0 win over Liverpool FC: Kroos’ behavior was disrespectful.
After the ensuing shitstorm subsided, journalist Oliver Wurm came up with an idea as to how the mess could be solved in a somewhat conciliatory and clever way: Ninety celebrities asked Kroos “well-considered” questions, and the Real professional answered in the same way. What came out of it is in the paperback “You had 90 minutes of time,” which is as entertaining as it is rich in images. Damn good questions for Toni Kroos”.
“You had 90 minutes.” 90 damn good questions for Toni Kroos: Image: Heyne Verlag
The questioners include Kroos’ former coaches Ottmar Hitzfeld, Jupp Heynckes and Joachim Löw or teammates such as Thomas Müller and Miroslav Klose, but also sports celebrities from other disciplines such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Usain Bolt. The fact that a few celebrities in categories B and C (podcasters/Youtubers) are allowed to ask a question is just as acceptable as the fact that not every question knocks the reader off their feet (or out of their armchair).
Nevertheless, a little book came out in which Kroos provides good insights into his thoughts, feelings and kicking. For example, when Heynckes asked how Kroos was able to win the Champions League four times with Real Madrid. You sometimes have to accept that you are the worse team, the current Real professional answers his former Bayern coach and sponsor: “In football, sometimes it’s just about keeping the disaster within limits.”
What the “Royals” apparently manage to do better than others. When asked by the tennis maestro Federer, who Kroos admires, which midfielder he complemented himself best with, the 33-year-old replied: “I think that the interaction with Modric and Casemiro has come close to perfection over the years.”
Because the questions are diverse – professional, personal, weird – the interested reader learns a lot from and about Toni Kroos: about his favorite striker in Madrid, his sleeping habits, his preference for white shoes and which animal his header technique reminds of (the similarity not flattering). Kroos is an advocate of VAR because, despite all the shortcomings, the video evidence has made football fairer.
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And he has a few ideas on how football could be reformed for the better: time penalties instead of yellow cards, the introduction of a net playing time of 60 minutes to stop time delays in the final phase. The book even has a happy ending. 16 months late, Kroos is still answering the question that he had angrily refused to answer after the Champions League victory in May 2022.
Toni Kroos, Oliver Wurm: “You had 90 minutes.” 90 damn good questions for Toni Kroos. Heyne Verlag 2023, 176 pages, 13 euros.
2023-10-16 16:06:39
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