Reigning US Open champion Martin Kaymer revealed for a first time in his own illustrious career he felt proud to be Germany following his country’s World Cup success over Argentina.
Kaymer revealed he was relaxing in his Hoylake rented house watching coverage of the final in the company of his Scottish-born caddy, Craig Connelly.
And Kaymer reminded everyone of his unique relationship with the German Team with Thomas Muller actually commenting ahead of the World Cup in Brazil that it was Kaymer’s stunning eight-shot Pinehurst success that helped inspire the German team going into the series of matches in Brazil.
Martin Kaymer confesses seeing Germany win the World Cup was the first occasion he felt good being a German born athlete. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)
“I watched here on Sunday night with Craig and to be honest, it was probably the first time in my career as an athlete where I was very, very proud to be a German athlete,” he said.
“Not because of my own success. The win is one thing, that they won the World Cup, but I think the way that they played football, the way they carried themselves, very grounded people, even after the win against Brazil, which was very unusual, that score, but they kept going and they had so much belief.
“They all played very brave.
“The planning was good. The people behind them and you see a whole country changing. It reminded me a little bit of when the World Cup was in Germany in 2006, as it was so nice to see what can sport do for you.
“Even we Germans, we laughed a lot (smiling).
“And we had jokes. So just the way they played and the way they were acting after their wins. And they don’t have only one star on the team. They have like six. seven, eight stars. But at the end of the day there were probably 15 or 16 players. They all kept it very well together and they figured for one team.
“So all the values that we live for in Germany, they played football that way.
“So it’s a great inspiration for me as an athlete and I hope for a lot of the people in Germany.”
