Kroos praises Germany's Nagelsmann for changing culture despite exit

Tony Kroos, who retired from all football after Germany's Euro 2024 exit, has praised coach Julian Nagelsmann for the way in which he banished the country's memory of poor performances at major tournaments.

Germany went out of their home tournament with a 2-1 extra-time defeat by Spain in the quater-finals on Friday, having otherwise impressed during the extravaganza. It contrasted markedly with meek group-stage exits at the last two World Cups.

Kroos, 34, told his podcast "Einfach mal Luppen" with his brother and now fellw ex-footballer Felix that the squad showed itself to be "a group of good guys" and "not just not good footballers" at the Euros.

"Julian can also feel vindicated in how he put this all together," added Kroos, who had long announced that the Euros would be his swansong having won a sixth Champions League with Real Madrid last month.

"This time, I really felt that 82 million people had the dream of winning this home European Championship."

Kroos said this had not felt the case at the World Cups of 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar.

He added of the Spain defeat: "Maybe we're not quite at the stage where we're the better team for 90 minutes. You can't expect that against an opponent like Spain. But everyone left everything on the pitch."