Toni Kroos explains reasons for renewal and praises Real Madrid for negotiation method

Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos has explained his reasons for extending his contract by an extra year on his podcast ‘Einfach mal luppen’.

The 33-year-old World Cup-winner admitted earlier in the season that he was considering retiring at the end of the campaign, and not until the final months of the season did it become clear he would keep going.

Kroos was enormously complementary of how Real Madrid handled it.

“Because I feel like it’s the right thing to do. In fact, I would like to congratulate the club on the way they have handled this whole matter. I think it has once again been a course of events absolutely worthy of this connection of mine to the club, on both sides. I played my role saying from the beginning and always very clearly: ‘I’m not leaving here anymore. I’m not sure if I want to play another year or not, but I’m not leaving here’.”

“Of course, the club has to take into account two important things: in theory, he could have signed elsewhere at any time from the first of January. One is that the club, theoretically, could have put pressure on me earlier. And the second is that, when the new year begins, you have to plan to some extent for the next season in terms of personnel. Here we don’t need big negotiations or haggling, I wasn’t going to get another club involved through my agent. But at no time did they exert pressure to find out earlier.”

Kroos also conceded that it was a realistic prospect, even if others were marvelling at how a player who was still at the top of the game could consider bowing out with years left in the game. The German highlighted that after Real Madrid’s incredible double last season, he was tempted to go out on the highest of highs. MD covered his comments.

“I wasn’t entirely not serious. Of course, at such times you are a little more emotionally charged. You get the feeling: you can’t get any higher. In the end, that’s how it was. For me it was an incredibly special day. The previous success (in the Champions League) was in 2018 and everyone was in the stadium. Doing that again and at the same time knowing how difficult it is… I didn’t take it as a joke at all.”

“I wasn’t ready to take that step at the time, but it had at least crossed my mind two or three times, that’s true. But then came the thoughts that I still have now: I don’t want to end up regretting it. You feel good enough, even for Real Madrid. So I decided to leave those thoughts there in my head.”

Neither does it mean that Kroos will be retiring at the end of this campaign though, claiming he was taking things as they come.

“Right now I don’t want to commit to anything. Don’t know. Perhaps there will be a much earlier, clearer decision… or not. Why close off either option now? There is no reason, at least not now. We’ll see how the year starts, how everything goes. Then I will ask myself the same questions as this year.”

Kroos was quite possibly Real Madrid’s best player before the World Cup, but struggled to maintain that rhythm in the early months of 2023. No doubt, at his best he still remains imperious. What may have a decisive impact on his thinking this season is the increased competition, with Fede Valverde, Luka Modric, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni, Dani Ceballos and Jude Bellingham all trying to win minutes in three spots.