Real Madrid are currently holding talks with former star midfielder Toni Kroos over the German World Cup winner’s potential return to the club.
According to The Athletic, Kroos who retired after the 2024 European Championship will not be returning to the pitch as a player. Real Madrid are hoping he will return to the club to join the management team.
The Spanish giant are weighing a Zinedine Zidane-style route for Kroos: after retirement, the former World Player of the Year joined the club and grew into a star coach, winning the Champions League in each of his two Bernabéu spells.
Toni Kroos retired from football after UEFA EURO 2024 tournament. (Photo by Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Kroos could start in a similar advisory role to the Frenchman and also represent the club at official events,” writes the website. A position in the inner circle of the first team is also feasible, as is a future transition to coaching, mirroring Zidane’s own journey.
Real Madrid are said to value Kroos’s experience and expertise too highly to let him go.
Kroos is currently concentrating on his podcast and the ‘Toni Kroos Academy’ football school he set up in Madrid, but there are hopes he’ll be willing to take up the new role.
Since Kroos retirement in 2024, Madrid have gone trophyless under Carlo Ancelotti in 2024/25, and the same fate now threatens in the current season, despite the best efforts of coaches Xabi Alonso and Álvaro Arbeloa.
