Toni Kroos says he “could never rule out” a Madrid return

It was back in 1615 when Spain’s most famous author and the inventor of the modern novel, Miguel de Cervantes, first wrote the line ‘second parts are never as good’.

Funnily enough, it came in his book The Second Part of Don Quijote de La Mancha, the follow up to the best-selling book of all time, which still moves more copies than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, And Then There Were None and The Lord of the Rings combined.

Given Cervantes’ clear admission of his anxiety of following up quite the debut, this simple line, uttered by the character Sansón Carrasco (no relation to Yannick), has now become a cliché in Spain and is brought out with flashing red lights as a warning every time someone or something is set to make a grand return.

Despite The Godfather Part II, which is the exception, there is normally a basis of truth, however old or now obsolete, onto which clichés forme. So perhaps we should take note when Toni Kroos decides to go against it.

Kroos keeps the door open for Real Madrid return

Kroos, the man who won it all without making a single bad decision that you can instantly remember, has spoken about returning to the Spanish club after retiring from Football in the summer following Germany’s exit at Euro 2024.

Toni Kroos led the best midfield ever of the biggest club in the world through the heyday of the best league in the world for an entire decade. He scored goals in finals, goals that sent Madrid into finals and provided assists in just about every other Game, leading the charge from midfield with passing stats that caused eyebrows to be raised at ‘blips’ such as having only 96% completed passes. Correct decisions, it seems, are his thing.

Speaking on his podcast, Kroos left the door open for a potential Real Madrid return: “The meaning of Real [Madrid] will always be the same for me. It was a very long, great, successful time with Real Madrid. It will always be like that, I will always be close to [the club], there is no doubt about that. And I will always support them, always be on their side. That will not change, the relationship is simply too close".

“Now I am fully occupied with my projects, but given the closeness with Madrid, my relationship at Madrid, I could never rule out doing something at the club at some point in the future", he added.

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“To appear now in the public environment of the club? The first thing I would say is no, no matter how close I feel to the club. But I’m not saying I won’t do or have anything to do with Real again in my lifetime, of course I wouldn’t rule it out. In what role I can’t know, or whether the club can imagine it or not. But I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of seeing myself again in some way at Real at some point."

And if there’s any person who can know how, when and why make the right decision about something, it’s Toni. Perhaps his second part might just be the second thing to break the 400-year-old rule.