Germany icon rages at World Cup WAGs’ ‘free household vacation’ after early exit
Germany legend Lothar Matthaus suggested the presence of players’ families at the World Cup was a major distraction following their exit at the hands of Paraguay
Germany star Kai Havertz and his wife Sophia kiss
Lothar Matthaus has claimed that Germany’s players were distracted by their WAGs and families at the World Cup, pinning the blame on them for their early exit at the hands of Paraguay.
The ex-national team skipper drew parallels with the 1994 tournament, when they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Bulgaria as the defending champions. Matthaus, 65, led Germany in both of those tournaments, which were two of the five World Cups he participated in.
After his country was eliminated by Paraguay in the round of 32 following their first-ever World Cup penalty shootout defeat, Matthaus was eager to delve deeper than just their performance against their South American rivals.
He stated: “While there’s a lot that needs to be processed about what happened on the pitch, what happened off the pitch also needs to be a topic of discussion.”
“There were documentaries [made] about this topic in ’94 [and] I don’t think it was that different this time round.”
Matthaus alleges family was “more important for many of [the players] than what took place on the football pitch”.
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Since hanging up his boots, the iconic midfielder has stayed in the public eye as a forthright television pundit back in Germany. He even contributed to ITV’s coverage during the European Championship in 2016 and this summer, he is on duty for Bild.
Three decades on from his own experience of World Cup disappointment in the United States, he was baffled by their inclusion. Matthaus said: “I really don’t know why they should be there.
“They [the players] hadn’t even been in America for two weeks, and already their entire families were with them. They could have been flown in for the quarter-finals when the team had actually accomplished something.”
He also alleges “there was a lot of unrest” over varying travel arrangements. Matthaus stated: “I know that it was a topic of discussion and that one player was cross with another because he was allowed to bring his mum with him.
“Another was allowed to bring his wife, then the kids were allowed to fly too.”
Inconsistencies are said to have emerged with some travelling on the team plane, while “others had had to take a commercial flight”.
He concluded: “The focus was simply not on the World Cup but on this free day to spend with the family and that free day with the family”.
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