The Madness of a Generation

Kicker: "Collet's remarks were irresponsible, and so were his actions. He is smearing German football!"

L'Équipe: "Two years from now, we hope Collet will not tearfully announce that he wants to join the national team again just to play in the World Cup."

Transfermarkt: "Collet may still resent not receiving the German Footballer of the Year award last year. Despite winning the treble with Real Madrid while unbeaten across all three competitions, he lost the honor to Philip Seeb. But Collet should understand Philip Seeb's contributions to Bayern Munich and German football."

OneFootball: "From a tactical standpoint, there was nothing wrong with substituting Collet. Bas Tiger possessed Collet's long passing as well as Melkan's running, physicality, and tackling ability, so the like-for-like change was understandable. No one could have predicted that Lu Yang would shut Bas Tiger down afterward—that was the unforeseen variable."

Tomorrow Mirror: "Collet has hurt all German people. He should apologize for what he has done!"

The German media criticized Collet across the board, as though someone had stripped off their underwear.

This further ruined Collet's already poor reputation in Germany.

Faced with this situation, Collet did not remain silent. He disabled comments on his personal social media accounts, but at the same time posted several updates and traded barbs with major German media outlets.

He verbally battled the masses without falling behind.

For example, in response to claims that he would want to rejoin the Germany National Team to play in the World Cup two years later, he bluntly stated, "I will definitely watch the World Cup two years from now, but whether the current Germany National Team will even make it there is something I think deserves a question mark!"

The sharpness of his words made people's scalps tingle.

The situation continued to escalate, becoming