Antonio Rüdiger is Europe's most unsporting top footballer – now he has gone a step too far

Real Madrid is a great place to learn to put a spin on things. The club has created a veritable victim cult around itself this season with boycotts and campaigns against referees.

Antonio Rüdiger joined in on Monday with a post on social media in which he presented himself in the hospital after knee surgery and informed us that he had "played with severe pain for over seven months."

Look at my pain, not my sins! This weekend, the German international shocked all those who hadn't already given up on the idea of ​​fair play in football. In the final minute of the 3-2 Spanish Cup final defeat to FC Barcelona, ​​not only the most vile insults were thrown from his direction, but also ice packs were thrown at the referee. Four teammates held him back.

Rüdiger apologized the next day, but the outcry was still enormous. In Spain, where he faces a ban of up to twelve matches, and in his native Germany, where numerous experts are calling for sanctions against the national team.

The circumstances created by the surgery could now save the German Football Association (DFB) from a rather uncomfortable decision regarding the Nations League finals scheduled for early June. Although Rüdiger stated in his post that he wants to return as soon as possible, experts expect a four to six-week break.

When healthy, Rüdiger is an indispensable part of the DFB team. Germany has no better central defender, as both Rudi Völler, the sporting director, and coach Julian Nagelsmann know. And the player himself, too. To avoid possible sanctions, Rüdiger apologized and promised to improve.

The association accepted the apology and addressed his conscience. There was no mention of the DFB wanting to do without him in the future. However, it cannot be ruled out that the discussion could have taken a different turn. Germany's record international player Lothar Matthäus demanded consequences, as did Stefan Effenberg and Dietmar Hamann.

Indeed, there is hardly a more unsporting top footballer in Europe than Rüdiger. And it doesn't always stop at the petty antics he's exhibited almost weekly in the Spanish league since his move to Madrid in 2022. In the final rounds of the Champions League alone, he first attracted attention with a "cut off his head" gesture toward the fans of local rivals Atlético Madrid, for which he was fined €40,000 and given a suspended ban by the European Football Association (UEFA).

In the quarter-final against Arsenal, his studs landed on Myles Lewis-Skelly's genitals. The referee was lenient, as was the referee in the 2021 Champions League final when Rüdiger, then still wearing a Chelsea shirt, shoulder-checked Kevin De Bruyne, causing the Manchester City player to fracture his eye socket and nose.

Compared to the 1990s, when Stefan Effenberg was excluded from the DFB for years because of a middle finger he raised at the fans, the association's expectations of its national team players are, at least officially, different today. They like to talk about "values" such as diversity, openness, and tolerance. And Rüdiger, in particular, is someone who can vividly recount his own experiences with racism.

However, he draws inadequate conclusions from this for himself. Rudi Völler says that Rüdiger must of course also show the same respect to others that he rightly demands for himself. However, the practical implementation is seriously flawed.

The "off with his head" gesture wasn't Rüdiger's first to be hotly debated. Last year, he presented himself on a prayer mat with his finger raised, offering greetings to Muslims around the world. Some wanted the so-called tawhid finger to be interpreted as an Islamist gesture. Three experts in the NZZ newspaper each offered different interpretations.

Extremism critic Hamed Abdel-Samad, for example, called it harmless, while Islamic scholar Susanne Schröter spoke of a pose of dominance. Before the European Championship, Rüdiger again raised his index finger at a UEFA photocall, a harmless move in itself. However, an Islamist website was advertising the player. The DFB left unanswered a request from the NZZ regarding what it intended to do about the instrumentalization of its national player .

In this respect, it's only logical to view Rüdiger as a controversial figure. Not only in Germany, but also in Spain, where he, with his often wide-open eyes, is considered "loco," or "crazy." Only, Real Madrid fans affectionately use the nickname for his often rousing performance, while opponents refer to his penchant for unsportsmanlike behavior.

The DFB's reaction so far could also be due to the fact that Rüdiger's behavioral problems rarely occur while wearing the national team jersey and mostly while wearing Real Madrid's uniform. He may have benefited in the past from the fact that referees are more reluctant to issue red cards to Real Madrid players. On Saturday, however, he clearly proved himself to be an accomplice to Real Madrid's relentless attacks on the referees.