Shkodran Mustafi has revealed why he held up a Marco Reus shirt to celebrate winning the World Cup with Germany.
The Arsenal defender only made his international debut a month before the 2014 tournament and said that he would not have even travelled to Brazil were it not for Reus’ injury.
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“I played a game just before the World Cup,” Mustafi told Arsenal Player. “I was in the last 27 but I didn’t make the last 23. But then Marco got injured and I got a call to join the team again, so I went to Brazil.
“When you think that you didn’t make the 23 players the first time, you think, ‘OK, I go there now, but my chances of playing aren’t going to be that big’. But straight away in the first game, you have to go out on to the pitch and in the second game you play again. Then you play again and again, and end up winning the World Cup.
“When people said to me that Marco was injured and now it was my turn, it always sounded a bit like they had forgotten about Marco because I was in the final 23 players.
“What I didn’t want was to forget him. I think he deserved to be there as well. He’s a fantastic player and that’s why I didn’t want to forget him.”
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