Kroos hoping for 'cheesy' career end with Euro win

Kroos, who won the 2014 World Cup with Germany and most recently lifted the Champions League for a sixth time after Real Madrid's 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in June, is set to retire after the European Championship.

Kroos stepped down from international duty after Germany's last-16 Euros exit to England in 2021 but answered a call from manager Julian Nagelsmann to return in February this year.

Speaking on Tuesday at Germany's Euros training base in the Bavarian village of Herzogenaurach, a "hungry" Kroos said he would not have come back if he did not believe in a sentimental ending.

"That ending would be a bit too cheesy, with the Champions League and the European Championship, but I'll take it. It went hand in hand with the decision to come back. I still want to be successful and I want to win the tournament this summer. That's quite clear.

"If I didn't feel this idea - or this fantasy - was possible, then I wouldn't have come back, because it's always about winning any competition I play in."

Starting his career at Bayern Munich before moving to Real Madrid, Kroos has won almost every trophy on offer at national and international level, other than the Euros crown. Germany face Scotland in Munich on Friday in the tournament's curtainraiser.

Three-time European champions Germany reached the semi-finals of the tournament in 2016 but have since endured a poor run at major tournaments.

They were eliminated at the group stage at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, their earliest exit in 80 years, before suffering the same fate at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, either side of elimination from Euro 2020.