"A million Nutella rolls": Max Kruse's undignified dismantling

Max Kruse's expulsion via live interview is still causing a stir among football fans.

"A million Nutella rolls": Max Kruse's undignified dismantling

Max Kruse's expulsion via live interview is still causing a stir among football fans. Wolfsburg's coach Niko Kovac is also criticized. Above all, the way is reminiscent of a public dismantling. Coaches like Rehhagel used to solve problems with difficult stars differently.

"How do you know it's Thursday in Cologne? Lukas Podolski comes to training for the first time this week." The former successful coach of the Bundesliga, Udo Lattek, simply couldn't resist this little subtlety against Cologne legend Lukas Podolski in the Sport1 "double pass". And in fact, after Podolski's return from FC Bayern Munich in 2009, rumors persisted that the national player was allowed to treat himself to one or the other little extra sausage in Cologne. But that was not a problem for world coach Udo Lattek, who was only put in his place by Diego Maradona at FC Barcelona. Because Lattek knew: Special players have always received a certain special treatment - and the teams always went along with it as long as everyone was successful in the end.

Hopefully they at VfL Wolfsburg already knew that Max Kruse falls into the category "not easy" and "special" before his commitment last winter. And his "feel-good curves" will not have escaped the attention of the men on the Wolves' management level, given a little professional preparation. After all, the stories of Max Kruse's former teammates about his fondness for a special nut nougat cream are now common knowledge in the Bundesliga. His ex-comrade Christopher Lenz once said that Kruse always ate what felt like a million Nutella rolls in the morning. And Martin Harnik also knew how to report: "Max slept with us once and in the morning almost plastered a whole pack of toast with Nutella. Alone! My father toasted himself almost sore. The crazy thing: Then we had a game and Max played like always delivered." Exactly.

And those responsible for VfL must have been aware of that too. Kruse often doesn't look particularly fit for the Bundesliga, but that seems deceptive, as Christopher Lenz also said: "No other player would be able to run two kilometers with his stomach." Max Kruse can obviously already do that. After all, the man is 34 years old, a former national player and long-time Bundesliga professional.

Now Niko Kovac only came to Wolfsburg in the summer and of course has every right not to like all the players in his squad and to see them as valuable for his dream team. But somehow since the start of the season you have the feeling that Max Kruse has been publicly declared fair game. The commentators on TV emphasized that the man from Wolfsburg did not seem fit and overweight. In these moments, the interested football fan wondered in amazement in front of the home receivers, what would be the difference to Kruse in the past. Visually, at least, everything seemed to have stayed the same. So in this case it must have been information given to the commentators. Just who is that supposed to be? And with what interest? And if he wasn't fit for action at all, why did he play at all?

Now the way in which he was actually kicked out is reminiscent of the public dismantling that Niko Kovac did with Thomas Müller as coach of FC Bayern Munich at the time - and in the now legendary post by Müller's wife on social media ("More than 70 minutes, until he has a flash of inspiration") found its temporary climax. Of course, in the Max Kruse case, the player will also have played his part in the final escalation last weekend - but how large this share actually is, given the way in which Niko Kovac and the club publicly commented on and moderated the expulsion, with hindsight difficult to measure. At the moment the shadow is more on the unprofessional and questionable approach of Kovac and Co.

It's really no secret that this type of player, popularly known as "guys", can always be a real challenge for a head coach. Otto Rehhagel has had dealings with many of these character players in his long career. A very special case at that time in Bremen was Mario Basler, about whom Rehhagel once said: "Mario was not easy to care for. But we needed him because he was an incredible player. I let him get away with one or the other . He then thanked me." And how!

Basler himself says today about this time: "Otto is the king for me. He gave me heaven on earth back then at Werder. I was allowed to do what I wanted - as long as I played well, Otto forgave me everything." And in fact, for more than half a year, Basler only came to training on Fridays. He had the rest of the week off. At that time, the Werder player is said to have had a hole in his groin, but even today teammates like Uli Borowka doubt it. It doesn't matter. In that season, Basler was the top scorer as a midfielder and Bremen finished second behind Dortmund. Basler was forgiven for the posse about his injury.

In his career, Max Kruse has often proved that he also has the skills to be the difference player in important situations. Niko Kovac and VfL Wolfsburg have now deliberately decided against the Max Kruse guy. That is their right. But neither the club nor the Bundesliga and of course especially not the player himself deserved the way this separation was done.

(This article was first published on Monday, September 12, 2022.)