“Already a house number”
© Imago
Joshua Kimmich also has an eye on Lothar Matthäus’s record brand before his 100th international match in the Nations League semi-final against Portugal. “A lot has to run optimally to crack the 150: you always have to be healthy. You always have to deliver at a high level. You need a trainer who supports you. And: We have to get further at tournaments than in the past,” the 30-year-old told the “kicker” to the record of the 1990 world champion Matthäus.
“He went to his last international match at 39, which is already a house number,” said Kimmich appreciatively about the 150 missions by Matthäus in the DFB team. The current Bayern professional plays its anniversary game on Wednesday (9 p.m./ZDF and DAZN) in his adopted home in Munich. He will then lead the national team as a captain. The declared goal is to move into the Nation’s League final against Spain or France four days later in the Allianz Arena.
Kimmich: “At VfB it was considered whether I can make it in the 3rd league”
100 caps – this brand was not at all foreseeable for Kimmich at the transition from the juniors to the professionals. “When I was 18, I was not even about the Bundesliga suitability, at that time it was even considered at VfB whether I could make it in the 3. League,” he said in retrospect about the change from VfB Stuttgart to third division promoted RB Leipzig.
Kimmich also admitted physical deficits at the time. At the time, the Hope smashed at VfB to be able to prepare the season preparation among the amateurs. That is why Kimmich switched to RB Leipzig, as he expressed. “If I compare my level of development at the time with that of the 17-year-old who train with us today, I have to honestly say that I was far from playing in the Bundesliga at the time.”
After an eventful previous DFB career, he proudly fulfills that he is now approaching his 100th international: “Because these 100 caps show that I have been on a constant high level in the past nine years and has always been healthy and fit.”