Captain Kimmich: Leadership “not a one-man show”

The new captain Joshua Kimmich will lead the German national team. “This should not be a one-man show.” “We have a strong trio with Kai Havertz and Antonio Rüdiger,” said the successor to the resigned Ilkay Gündogan on Tuesday in Herzogenaurach during his first press conference after his appointment. “We need a lot of guys who will take on responsibility.”

The new position fills the Bayern professional with pride. “As a small child, you write something else in your friends' book: that you dream of becoming a national player.” But that is an infinitely far away. “For me, it is something very special to be a national player and now also captain,” he stressed.

With the team, in which “a lot has unfortunately changed” due to resignations, he will maintain the euphoria of the home European Championships: “It was important that we managed to get people moving and excited again. We want to keep doing that. Everyone is up for it.”

Kimmich (91 international matches) has already led the national team onto the field as captain seven times, and that will be nothing fundamentally new for him in the Nations League opener against Hungary on Saturday (8.45 p.m./ZDF) in Düsseldorf. Most recently, the 29-year-old was one of Gündogan's deputies.