Real Madrid star Antonio Rudiger announces Germany retirement

Real Madrid have already played three games into the 2026-27 season in its first week, but before that, the Merengue fans had to wait quite a long time to see their favorite team in action, as Los Blancos ended their last season back in May, and had several months of off-season.

However, during this time, these fans had another footballing spectacle on-going to keep their attentions, i.e., the World Cup 2026. Several Real Madrid players participated in this competition, and one of them, Marc Cucurella, went on to raise the trophy with his Spanish national team.

Meanwhile, this World Cup was special for some other players as well. One such player is the Merengue center-back Antonio Rudiger, as this was his last World Cup as a player with Germany.

As Diario AS has reported, the defender took to his social media to announce that he has decided to end his time with the German national team. Thus, his last game in a Die Mannschaft jersey was the Round of 32 game against Paraguay, which saw his team unexpectedly being eliminated from the competition.

In total, the Real Madrid center-back remained a part of the German national team for more than 12 years, having made his debut back in May 2014. In total, he played 86 games for the national team. Unfortunately, he was unable to win either a World Cup or a UEFA EURO trophy during this time.

For now, Antonio Rudiger has decided to retire from international football to focus entirely on Real Madrid. He made this clear in the social media post that he published to announce his decision, and in this post, he also thanked the German federation, the coaches he has played with, and the fans for the love they showed him during his international career.