Antonio Rüdiger has faced criticism on several occasions.
Former women’s national football goalkeeper Almuth Schult believes the central defender is therefore not suitable for the role of vice-captain in the German national team.
‘For me, a leader must be a role model and set the direction,’ Schult stated in an interview with the platform WEB.DE News. ‘Rüdiger is an emotional leader, but in my opinion, sometimes over the top and unfair in certain situations. That doesn’t fit the role of vice-captain for the national team for me,’ the 35-year-old elaborated.
In her opinion, Bundestrainer Julian Nagelsmann could have forgone calling up Rüdiger at times in the past. The 33-year-old had many individual notable incidents ‘which, in sum, could certainly have been a reason not to nominate him,’ she, the 2016 Olympic champion, said. Rüdiger was recently demoted by Nagelsmann to first backup in central defense behind Jonathan Tah and Nico Schlotterbeck in view of the upcoming World Cup in the USA, Mexico, and Canada (June 11 to July 19).
Schult also criticizes Nagelsmann: «Not always completely comprehensible»
Meanwhile, Schult also identified potential for development in Nagelsmann regarding communication: ‘It happens that he presents arguments for a player that he uses a few weeks or months later in a similar form against the same or another player. That is not always completely comprehensible from the outside,’ said the long-time goalkeeper for VfL Wolfsburg.
However, Schult viewed Nagelsmann’s apology to Deniz Undav, whom he had publicly criticized despite scoring in a friendly against Ghana at the end of March, positively: ‘I think it’s fundamentally good that Julian Nagelsmann is willing to revisit things.’