Germany midfielder Toni Kroos has criticised Mesut Ozil for the manner he announced his international retirement last month.
Ozil ended his international career after Germany’s World Cup group stage exit where he was booed by home fans after he and fellow midfielder Ilkay Gundogan posed for pictures with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May.
In a three-part statement, Ozil accused the German FA president Reinhard Grindel of racism. But Real Madrid midfielder Kross defending the team’s organization.
“Basically, Mesut is a long-serving national team player and deserved a better exit as a footballer,” Kroos, 28, told German daily Bild.
Critical: Toni Kroos
“I have played with Mesut for many years and know that he is a nice guy. But the way he retired was out of order.
“The proportion of his statement which was fair and justified was unfortunately overshadowed by a much higher proportion of nonsense.
“I think he himself knows that racism does not exist within the national team and the DFB.
“On the contrary, we are always committed to diversity and integration. Mesut was a good example of that, like many of our team mates.”