National team: Kimmich on dealing with World Cup frustration: Children helped me

National soccer player Joshua Kimmich helped with the processing of his World Cup trauma as a father.

“To be honest, I didn’t really fall into a hole. I think that’s partly due to my three children,” said the 27-year-old Bayern Munich midfield star. “It was difficult to fall into any hole. You have other tasks there.”

In 2018, when the German national team was also eliminated in the preliminary round of the World Cup, it was “almost a bit more difficult”, said Kimmich in the Munich training camp in the World Cup location in Qatar. The national team will work through the tournament internally “and then we will hopefully attack from March”. Then the national team will start preparing for the home European Championship in 2024. Venues and opponents for the first international matches of the year between March 22nd and 28th have not yet been decided.

The 74-time national player spoke in Doha for the first time after the World Cup on December 1st. Immediately after the 4-2 win against Costa Rica, which was not enough to qualify for the World Cup round of 16, Kimmich was in the stadium in Al Chaur and spoke of the “most difficult day of my career”. He was “a bit afraid of really falling into a hole,” he said, even emotionally touched.

“Of course, the statements immediately after the game was eliminated were very emotional, because something like that affects me, because you have big goals, because we had big goals,” said Kimmich. You were eliminated early again and that was very bitter overall. “Because you don’t have too many chances – especially with the national team,” said the midfield leader.

“It’s not something that you can just forget and tick off. Nevertheless, the motivation to be back here is huge. We now have other tasks ahead of us,” said Kimmich.