Toni Kroos‘ brother will be watching the Real Madrid midfielder in action on Wednesday as the 14-time champions take on Union Berlin… but he won’t be supporting him.
Madrid will kick off their Champions League campaign on Wednesday as they bid to regain the trophy they handed over to Manchester City last season.
Kroos is in the squad for the match and expected to play a part, even if it’s off the bench as his appearances, though he could yet start.
His brother is one of his biggest fans and has been snapped on the pitch with the German midfielder when he’s had success, even donning a Madrid shirt as he posed with the trophy following the club’s 2022 success.
But he’s a former player himself, having spent four years with Union Berlin 2016 and 2020, playing 108 games for the club and scoring six goals before retiring after playing for Eintracht Braunschweig.
Toni Kroos will line up for Real Madrid on Wednesday as they take on Union Berling in the Champions League
Kroos’ brother Felix (left), however, coaches Union Berlin’s U19 side and played for the club for four years
He admitted it is hard to know how to feel about the game with his family facing his ‘football family’ in Spain
Since November 2021, he has been the assistant coach of Union Berlin’s U19 side, sand was asked how he thought Wednesday’s game would go by the club’s media.
‘I have said a lot of results, but here I’m going for 2-2,’ the former midfielder replied, with the video captioned, in German: ‘Family against family. Of course we understand.’
Kroos added: ‘My family always comes first, but I have a problem because Union is my football family.
The game will take place at the Bernabeu and Berlin are up against it in their bid to get out the group, with the other teams being Sporting Braga and Napoli.
Felix retired at the age of 30 in 2021 before going into coaching following a good playing career in Germany
Toni, meanwhile, has gone onto lift five Champions League titles and is chasing a fifth this term
While Felix played in the Bundesliga and was capped at youth level for Germany, his career didn’t quite hit the height of his brother’s.
The two both started their youth careers with Greifswalder SC and FC Hansa Rostock in Germany, but Toni signed for Bayern Munich as a youngster while Felix went onto play for the Hansa first team.
Felix went onto enjoy time with Werder Bremen and Berlin before retiring at Eintracht aged 30.
Toni, meanwhile, went onto win the Champions League with Bayern in 2013 before signing for Madrid, where he has lifted the title a further four times.
