Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has written an open letter to fans following their failure to reach the Euro 2016 final. The current world champions were dumped out of the tournament after losing 2-0 to host nation France on Thursday in the semi-finals.
the box, and Antoine Griezmann calmly dispatched the spot-kick to set France on their way to the final.
The 31 year-old, who’s thought to be considering retirement following the summer, shared an open letter to the German fans which was shared on Germany’s official Facebook page (via Sky Sports ).
The first line set the tone for the rest of the piece. It wrote: “Dear fans, I have one word: pity. Our dream has not been fulfilled. We haven’t reached the final and there will be no magic night to follow the one in Rio.
“Sadly, we lacked something decisive against France: the luck you need.
But defeats are part of the game, even if they hurt. And of course we can acknowledge the performance of our opponents and we can honestly congratulate the Equipe de France from the bottom of our hearts for
reaching the final.”
He continued: “I am nevertheless proud of what we have achieved. We stuck to our style of playing football. In the past seven weeks, we’ve grown tighter together as a team and this unity is what made us so strong
two years ago in Brazil, and it was the same here in France. We are one team. We are Die Mannschaft.”
Germany’s support was obviously disappointed that their side couldn’t find a way past France, and were unable to recapture the form which made them so dominate in Rio two years ago. Despite this, the midfielder
gave a nod to those who made the trip to France this summer.
He wrote: “Part of that is you, the fans. In Lille, St-Denis, Paris, Bordeaux, Marseille – wherever we were, thanks to you we had a 12th man by our side. Your support in the stadiums could be heard and seen and we could also feel the great backing of the people in the whole of Germany. At this
point, I would like to say MANY THANKS to the fans.”
The national captain went on to thank France for hosting the tournament, and the French people for making it such a success.
He added: “Many thanks also to the hosts, France and the French people. From day one, we felt good, secure and very welcome. We had the best conditions in Evian-les-Bains.
“We were able to focus, train hard and at the same time remain relaxed and chill out in our base. France have been outstanding hosts of this European Championships. In the name of the team, I would like to take my hat off to France. Merci! Au revoir! See you soon! Bastian Schweinsteiger.”
Schweinsteiger will return to Old Trafford after a short break, where he will hope to have more success. He’s so far failed to make an impact at his new club, with injury blighting his first year in Manchester.
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