Real Madrid legend Toni Kroos confessed that he wouldn’t have retired already if he was a tennis player, during a chat with a compatriot star of that sport in Alexander Zverev.
Kroos explained how he played badminton before football as a child, with his mother previously a champion in the discipline.
“So I quickly found joy in tennis … If I were a tennis player, I wouldn’t have stopped yet,” the 34-year-old admitted.
“I always wanted to finish at the highest level. I’ve played with a lot of top players, but few have made it. There were still changes here and there. The constant travel and being away from family have tired me over the years. Maybe five years from now I’ll say it was too soon, but now I feel good,” he added.
“[In tennis] you decide whether to bring your wife and children to tournaments. You decide who your team is, who sits in the box and who sleeps in your bed the night before the game. That doesn’t happen in team sports,” Kroos explained to Zverev.
“In August I went on vacation for the first time in my life. And now, when I take the kids to school, then I drive home and not to training,” the former midfielder went on.
Kroos revealed that he occasionally returns to Madrid’s training ground. “I don’t know whether they think it’s cool if I pop up once in a while and say I want to join [them]. Currently there is also the risk that Carlo [Ancelotti] will tell me: ‘Now stay here’,” he joked.
“Right now I don’t feel like training adults. I’m going to open a youth academy in Madrid, so they’ll have to believe in it if I play along with them.”
Toni Kroos called time on his career after Real Madrid’s success last season and has since been enjoying great time with family and friends.
