Backspace player Michael Kraus (35) can imagine a comeback in the national handball team for the home world championship. The world champion of 2007 convinced as playmaker of the Bundesliga team TVB Stuttgart with 29 goals in the last two league games. With 56 goals, Kraus is currently the most dangerous player in the Bundesliga.
“I am a professional athlete through and through. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t seriously worried about it. That’s quite clear,” Kraus said in a TV interview with Sky: “Anyone who knows me knows that I’m always looking for the competition. But there hasn’t been an inquiry yet.”
Although national coach Christian Prokop had recently rejected such games of thought, the loss of back clearance shooter Julius Kühn (cruciate ligament rupture) could be an argument for a recall action by Kraus. “Mimi is always good for a surprise, he could be a supplement for those special moments,” said Sky expert Heiner Brand, who as national coach with Kraus had become world champion in his own country in 2007.
Ex-world handball player Daniel Stephan and former world-class left-winger Stefan Kretzschmar see things in a similar light. “If you get him, you get risk! Kraus is the player with the certain something. He decides a finale, is a man for the joker role,” wrote Kretzschmar in his Sky column.
Stephan brings Kraus into play as an alternative for Kühn. “For the semi-left position you can deal with the player Mimi Kraus, because his strength is his athleticism and his goal instinct,” Stephan told the SID, but limited: “We can’t bring every player who has a good phase back into the national team right now.
Coach Prokop has finally decided to return to the game with playmaker Martin Strobel. “Personally, I think you should keep an eye on the future and not reactivate two players beyond 30,” said Stephan, who had been directing the national team’s midfield for years. Kretzschmar sees things differently, seeing Kraus as “the perfect counterpart to Strobel”.