Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg made a visit to the German National Football team’s training camp back in 2012.
Rosberg and Schumacher were teammates at Mercedes from 2010-2012. This was when the latter came out of retirement to help the Silver Arrows find their feet in F1.
Ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix in 2012, the duo made a visit to the German Football team’s training camp. Die Mannschaft were preparing for that summer’s European Championships, which were held in Poland and Ukraine. The Mercedes drivers, who themselves were German, visited the camp and interacted with the players and coaches.
As it turned out, they were familiar with the faces in the team. Schumacher revealed that he and former Arsenal striker Lucas Podolski were in-fact, great friends. This meeting was mainly a promotional event for Mercedes, who marketed the A-class by having the legendary F1 drivers drive it with the German Football team in the car.
Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg drive the Mercedes Benz A-Class
Podolski was a joined by four other footballers from the team in their 18km run in the Mercedes A-class. Borussia Dortmund captain Marco Reus, Andre Schürrle and Tim Weise, all jumped aboard.
As expected, they being F1 drivers, took the car to the very limit. Schumacher even asked the drivers sitting in the backseat, to let him know if it gets uncomfortable. Soon however, their outing in the car ended as they returned to the training camp. Wiese said after the drive it was really fun and that Schumacher and Rosberg had it “all under control.”
… well this aged well
— Molls (@LilEllenn) June 29, 2021
“It’s a lovely car,” Marco Reus said while talking about their ride. “A lot of fun to go around in, especially with a Formula driver. It looks great and it’s got plenty of power.”
After driving the A-class, the Mercedes teammates played football for a while with the other members of the German Football team. They also exchanged words with their then head coach Joachim Löw.
Germany’s Euro 2012 campaign ended in disappointment, after they lost 1-2 to Italy in the semi-finals. The Italians ultimately lost to Champions Spain 4-0 in the final.
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