Throughout his country’s successful World Cup campaign, Lukas Podolski made no secret of his admiration for Brazil as he and the rest of the Germany squad embarked on a charm offensive from their base in Bahia.
The 29-year-old spent more time on Twitter than on the field during the World Cup but his love affair with Brazil and its people has led to some inevitable questions about whether or not he will ever return to play in the country, with the player pictured holding a Flamengo shirt last week.
“I want to stay in Europe. I love this country (Brazil). Flamengo also have a shirt made by Adidas… In football you can never say no,” said the striker after Germany’s 1-0 victory over Argentina at the Maracanã.
Podolski went on to explain how he came to post so many social media updates in Portuguese.
“I can’t write Portuguese but I do them in English and give them to a friend to translate.
“It was a great tournament here. Great country, great people. It’s because of this that I wanted to support the people here. In the cities that we went to we had a great time.”
