Humiliated by the coach Mehmedi thought it was a joke, but it was "a huge shock"

Admir Mehmedi has played in the Champions League with three clubs. A fourth club, Wolfsburg, would actually have joined him, but the 33-year-old was taken by surprise by his coach.

Wolfsburg finish the 2020/21 season in 4th place and qualify for the Champions League. Mehmedi starts the season as a regular, but is then set back by injuries and only makes sporadic appearances, mostly as a substitute. In total, he played in 18 of 34 games.

After the season, coach Oliver Glasner moves on and Dutchman Mark van Bommel takes over. It was the beginning of the end for Mehmedi at Wolves. He was not even nominated for the Champions League.

At first, he thought the coach was joking. Mehmedi recalls in the football talk show Heimspiel: "The disappointment at the time was huge," especially as he was the only player in the squad who didn't make the list.

"Before the list was submitted, he (Van Bommel; editor's note) called me into the office briefly and told me that I hadn't made the squad of 26 or 27 players. And I was the player with the most international games in the squad," says the former international player. "It was a huge shock that you don't make it into the first 26 or 27 players. I still don't understand why that was the case back then. Those are the less pleasant moments."

And what was the reason for not nominating him? "The reason was that he decided that he had to make a decision. And yes..." How did Mehmedi react to this? "At first I thought he was joking. And then at some point I realized he was serious. I stood in front of him and was speechless. I would have expected anything but that. Once a decision has been made, what's the point of arguing about it? That's just the way it is. These are things that you have to swallow as a player and simply accept."

Van Bommel was then released on October 23 after just 13 games. Mehmedi also left the club two and a half months later and moved to Antalyaspor on a free transfer, where he ended his career in the summer of 2023.

Mehmedi also has very different memories of the Champions League. He experienced some magical moments with FCZ (2 games), Dynamo Kiev (2) and Bayer Leverkusen (11). He scored five goals for Leverkusen and set up another goal. Unforgettable moments.

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