Antonio Rüdiger #2

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The most-criticised German international of them all at the moment and Julian Nagelsmann has admitted that Rüdiger is a polarising figure. That has little to do with his performances, though, and much more with his behaviour in certain instances. There was the throat-slitting gesture towards Atlético Madrid’s fans, for which he was fined, and the tantrum after the 2025 Copa del Rey final against Barcelona when he tried to throw ice at the referee and called him, among other things, a “freak” (“Missgeburt” in German). He was suspended for six games. Add to that the challenge on Getafe’s Diego Rico in March and there is a pattern emerging. “When you’re under that much criticism as an international, then you start thinking,” Rüdiger later told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He knows he has had incidents “that were clearly over the line” and admits he has not lived up to his responsibilities. “I don’t want to be a source of unrest, I want to provide stability and security,” he says. Remarkably, in more than 80 games for Germany he has never been sent off. For Real, after some injury problems, he was a fixture in the team towards the end of the season but, for Germany going into the World Cup, Tah and Schlotterbeck were ahead of him in the pecking order.

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