"Difficult to find a jersey where there are no stupid rumors" - Mats Hummels makes hilarious claim as he poses with Greece kit
Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels posted a hilarious Instagram story where he is seen sporting Greece's international jersey. Claiming that wearing the particular jersey would create no speculations surrounding him, the player wrote on Instagram:
"Difficult to find a jersey for sports where there are no stupid rumours afterwards."
Reacting to this, Hummels' former centre-back partner and ex-Greece international Sokratis Papastathopoulos wrote on his Instagram story with a laughing emoji:
"I have a feeling that you missed me my friend. I miss you too."
The pair made a total of 79 appearances together at Signal Iduna Park and even bagged a joint goal contribution. Sokratis left Dortmund in 2018 to join Arsenal.
Hummels, meanwhile, is still going strong for Borussia Dortmund but failed to get picked for Germany's Euro 2024 squad. At the moment, Real Madrid centre-back Antonio Rudiger has been paired alongside Bayer Leverkusen's Jonathan Tah for Die Mannschaft.
Surprisingly, Hummels was excluded from the setup, given his experience in international football with Germany. To date, the former Bayern Munich defender has made 78 appearances for his country, bagging five goals.
He also had a good season with Dortmund, making 40 appearances and bagging four goals while assisting one.
When Sokratis Papastathopoulos wanted to forge Mats Hummels-like partnership with ex-Arsenal man
Sokratis Papastathopoulos made the move to the Emirates Stadium in the summer of 2018 and was set to partner David Luiz in central defense ahead of the 2019-20 season.
At the time, the Greek defender said he wanted to forge a partnership similar to the one he had with Mats Hummels at Borussia Dortmund. Speaking in August 2019, he said (via Independent):
"I have known him for a lot of years. He also speaks some Greek and is a very good guy. I am also happy that we took a player like him with experience."
"When I was at Dortmund, I played with Hummels, who has the same style as David. It was a very good partnership and it is very good," Sokratis added.
However, things didn't go too well as the pair made 22 appearances across competitions alongside each other, conceding 27 goals. Arsenal finished eighth in the Premier League that season and conceded 48 goals.