Mats Hummels reacted to Niko Kovac’s statements that the central defender had fled from FC Bayern to Borussia Dortmund. In addition, the BVB star does not categorically rule out a return to the German national team.
“If at some point I could put on the jersey for Germany again, I wouldn’t defend myself against it. I don’t have that on the piece of paper and will use the international break for other purposes. But I’ll play for a few more years, let’s just see what happens,” said the 30-year-old defender from Borussia Dortmund, who had been eliminated by national coach Joachim Löw in spring, in a kicker interview.
Munich coach Niko Kovac described his farewell to FC Bayern in the summer as an “escape” from the record champions’ competition.
“That’s just not true. That’s all I say,” says Hummels. He had “no interest in re-carding. I had a good time with the Bavarians.”
The reasons for his return to the BVB would lie “first of all in an excellent team”.
Most of all, however, he had met Managing Director Hans-Joachim Watzke “with the role that I was to take on – also to lead. That was the greatest incentive for me,” Hummels stressed: “I want to fill with life what is expected of me: to play well, to take responsibility when it doesn’t work, to stand my ground in difficult situations and to sweep the others along”.
It was already his “claim”, Hummels continued, “to bring in a winning mentality. It must be acknowledged that the winning mentality in Munich is not the worst. You’ve seen it for more than 40 years. As different as the cultures of the clubs are: It must be my goal to bring this attitude into Dortmund even more strongly now.”
This is why he comes to Dortmund “with great ambitions” – even in the premier class. “I’m certainly not saying that if we reach the round of sixteen in the Champions League, we should be satisfied. With our team we must set ourselves great goals in this competition – without being among the top favourites for the title.”
