Talks about CL & time after career
Real Madrid’s Antonio Rüdiger has warned against his former club ahead of the Champions League quarter-final clash with Chelsea. Despite the weak season so far with eleventh place in the Premier League, the Londoners have “a very strong squad,” said the 30-year-old central defender in an interview with the newspaper “El Mundo”. The first leg takes place on Wednesday (9 p.m.) at the defending champions at the Santiago Bernabéu, with the second leg taking place in London six days later. The Blues have invested an unprecedented €611.5m in signings this season – by far the record for a club in one season.
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Rüdiger played for England last season. When asked if Chelsea were “a completely different team” today, the former VfB Stuttgart professional replied: “Yes, but for me they’ve gotten even better.” Maybe there wasn’t enough time “to find each other as a team. But they have a very strong squad and that makes them unpredictable. They have a lot of talent,” he said. Rüdiger won the “premier class” with Chelsea in 2021, and in 2022 he went to Madrid on a free transfer. With Real, however, he wants to win this title “at least, at least, at least three times,” “if that should be possible,” as he said with a laugh.
“Winning here would be unbelievable, because I would go down in the history books of the club and nobody can get you out of there.” Meanwhile, Rüdiger, who has a contract until June 2026, is also thinking about the time after his professional career. “After football, I want to be a businessman. I don’t know what will happen in ten years, but I don’t think I want to be involved in football any longer.”
The German national player could not specifically answer whether he would play for as long as his 37-year-old teammate Luka Modric. “I don’t know if I’ll reach that age, but we’ll see what my body tells me, I’ll listen to it and then we’ll decide,” said Rüdiger.
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