“A few insults were hurled”: Niclas Füllkrug clashes with DFB star during another goal fest
Niclas Füllkrug not only scored twice in Werder Bremen’s 3-2 Bundesliga win away at Mainz 05, but also caused a stir on two occasions away from the sporting action itself.
After the final whistle of Saturday afternoon's match, Füllkrug, substituted in the 81st minute, went onto the pitch beaming as he celebrated with his team-mates. Then his smile gave way to an angry glare as he confronted Mainz's Nadiem Amiri. The two Germany internationals stood furiously head to head in a heated exchange. Werder midfielder Youri Regeer stepped in to separate them.
"Amiri wasn't entirely respectful towards my team-mate," Füllkrug later explained in his DAZN interview. "Then I told him to keep a lid on it."
Unlike Füllkrug, Amiri had been called up for the first internationals under new Germany coach Jürgen Klopp. He told Sky: "It's all good. I know Fülle from the DFB. A few things in the game got on my nerves from the start. After a foul on Danny da Costa, Füllkrug didn't want to apologise. I was already a bit angry then." The Mainz midfielder added: "That's football. We get along, but a few insults were exchanged. No hard feelings."
Niclas Füllkrug and Nadiem Amiri were once called up to the Germany squad together
Amiri and Füllkrug have crossed paths just once with the Germany national team, when they were called up together for the World Cup qualifiers in September 2025. The Werder returnee has not been called up to the Germany squad since and missed, among other things, last summer's World Cup. Amiri attended and made two substitute appearances. Most recently, he started Klopp's debut, the 1-1 draw in the Netherlands at the end of September.
Since returning to Bremen on loan from West Ham United in mid-August, Füllkrug has been making a strong case for a return to the national team. In Mainz, he put Werder ahead with two converted penalties (seventh and 25th minutes), his seventh and eighth Bundesliga goals of the season.
Why did Niclas Füllkrug lose his temper when he was substituted?
Füllkrug had also lost his temper in Mainz when he was substituted in the 81st minute. The 33-year-old walked past Werder's bench to his seat, gesticulating and ranting. After the final whistle, he stressed that the substitution itself had not upset him.
"Because the substitution took a little while," Füllkrug said when asked why he was angry. "I had signalled a few minutes earlier that I needed to come off. We needed all eleven players at 100 per cent to see out the 3-2." He had "the feeling that two or three opportunities had already been missed when the ball was out of play and I wasn't substituted. That annoyed me a bit." Laughing, he admitted that an earlier substitution had not been possible: "I don't think the ball went out of play at all. So my mistake."
