London (dpa)
Toni Kroos, the star of the Spanish football team Real Madrid, defeated his former German teammate Marco Reus, the star of the German team Borussia Dortmund, in their last match with their two clubs in the Champions League final.
Kroos decided to retire from football after participating with the German national team in the upcoming European Nations Cup (Euro 2024), which his country will host later this month, where he won his sixth Champions League title.
Kroos was able to equal the record for the most players to win the prestigious title, with his Croatian teammates Luka Modric and Nacho, in addition to Dani Carvajal, who opened the scoring for the royal team in the match. Kroos praised the good performance presented by Dortmund in the first half of the match, before the experience of the Real players decided matters in the end and they defeated the German team 2-0, after Brazilian Vinicius Junior scored the second goal for the white team.
Kroos said after the match: “It was not easy. I wanted to say goodbye to this Champions League title. It means a lot.”
He added: “After we scored a goal, we took control of the match, but it took a long time until we imposed our dominance over the course of events.”
For his part, his teammate in the German and Real Madrid national team, Antonio Rudiger, said: “It is amazing. It was a difficult match, with all due respect to Dortmund, they played well.”
Royce, who was born in Dortmund, participated as a substitute in the second half when the score was a scoreless draw, but he left his team after 12 years spent within its walls, during which he suffered a large number of injuries.
Royce won only two German Cup titles with Borussia Dortmund. He also missed Germany’s victory in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and Royce is now expected to move to play in the American Football League.
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