Home tournament review
©IMAGO
The dramatic elimination in the quarter-finals of the European Championship at home this summer deprived national team captain Joshua Kimmich (29) of sleep. “As a father of four young children, I lack sleep every night. Not sleeping at all almost never happens to me. But this summer it will be. The night after the quarter-finals. Against Spain (1:2 ap.; editor’s note). “For me, this is the most emotional international match I have played so far,” Kimmich wrote in an article in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”.
At the beginning of July, after an exciting tournament, the German national team lost to the future European champions only after extra time and a lot of excitement around Marc Cucurella’s handball. “I played well, I gave it my all and I was still eliminated. At home. At the European Championships at home. “We all had to deal with that first,” Kimmich recalls.
We then sat together and talked. “Some even until it gets light and the first people come back for breakfast. With a strange vibe between extremely disappointed and somehow special,” said the FC Bayern Munich midfielder.
For Kimmich, the European Championships meant more than sport
Kimmich not only saw the home European Championships as a sporting boost. “This last night, with the disappointment of the elimination, without sleep, with a lot of conversations and also a lot of silence, helped me understand that we cannot reduce this tournament to the sporting result.”
“Something has developed again. Between us as a team and what feels like the whole country. Just like I experienced when I was a child. The way it feels right and how it should be. I took that feeling with me. This is exactly why I remember this summer with a smile.