Kroos: "Real Madrid is a family concern and works well"

Posted Monday, February 16, 2015 by Marca.com

Kroos:

Real Madrid's German international player Toni Kroos has assured that in the Real Madrid changing room there are no "prima donnas" and that the club is a "family concern that works well".

"No one gives himself airs, and there aren't any wise guys or prima donnas. We are a family concern, working well", he stated in an interview which appears in today's German Sunday paper "Bild am Sonntag".

All the same, Kroos, 25, allowed that Real Madrid is "much more intense" when compared to his former club Bayern Munich. An example of this, he said, is the way people react when they see him. "In Munich people kept their distance. Here they go wild whenever they spot a Real Madrid player".

Kroos also warned his team not to underestimate the potential of Schalke 04, Real Madrid's opponents in the upcoming Champions League Round of 16 match on Wednesday. "No one goes there and wins as if the team counted for nothing, not even Real Madrid", he said.

Last season, Real Madrid, on their way to winning their tenth European trophy, beat all three of their German opponents, Bayern, Dortmund and Schalke, in the knockout stages of the competition. And Schalke came off especially badly, being beaten 6-1 at home by Real Madrid.

But, insisted Kroos, all that is in the past, and it is up to Real Madrid to prove they are still the bête noir of the German teams. "We are now in a different situation, and have to start again from scratch".