Straubing Tigers defender Marcel Brandt is ending his career with the national ice hockey team. During an appearance he explains the reasons for this and settles accounts with national coach Harold Kreis.
Marcel Brandt played his last game in the national team four years ago, and since then he has not been called up to the national squad by national coach Harold Kreis. Now the 33-year-old has announced his resignation from the DEB team: “That between us is over,” he said, according to a report in the trade journal “Eishockey-Magazin”, at a season-end party for the Straubing Tigers.
He explained his resignation because national coach Harold Kreis consistently ignored him. “When statements come from a national coach like: ‘I haven’t been interested in you for the last three years and I haven’t watched you or generally looked at what you do.’ Then that is statement enough for me. That’s simply a no-go,” said Brandt, who was once again the most accurate German defender in the DEL with 16 goals in the last main round – as in the previous five years.
Marcel Brandt: “I was always open”
The 33-year-old was still part of the regular staff under the then national coach Toni Söderholm. Kreis, on the other hand, did not call the Straubing player into the national team once. “I was always open, I always waited for a call. It never came,” said Brandt.
Brand has also not been taken into account for the preparations for the upcoming Ice Hockey World Cup, which will take place in Switzerland between May 15th and 31st. In an interview with MagentaSport, national coach Kreis explained: “He canceled for personal reasons.”
As “Ice Hockey News” reports, Brandt would have liked to go to Zurich, and he would have postponed his already planned vacation to do so.
Discussion between Brandt and national coach Kreis
But there was at least a discussion: “He apologized for it, he can’t turn back time,” reported Brandt, “we parted on good terms.” In the meantime, Brandt and his wife decided “that I will no longer play for Germany – and he has accepted that.”
The national team chapter is closed for Brandt: “It’s over now and that’s okay.” The strongest offensive defender in the league will no longer play for the national ice hockey team in the future. Brandt made his DEB debut in April 2016 as part of the Euro Hockey Challenge. He took part in the 2021 World Cup in Riga and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
