{"id":648147,"date":"2026-10-16T11:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/648147\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T11:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:22:09","slug":"mikel-merino-on-2017-dortmund-bus-attack-and-journey-to-world-cup-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/648147\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Merino on 2017 Dortmund bus attack and journey to World Cup winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arsenal<\/a> midfielder Mikel Merino has said a last-minute change of seats on the team coach may have saved his life while he was at Borussia Dortmund.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard was 20 years old when Dortmund’s bus was hit by explosives on its way to the home leg of their Champions League semi-final against Monaco in 2017.<\/p>\n

Three bombs that had been filled with metal pins and hidden in a hedge, exploded as the bus passed.<\/p>\n

A huge piece of shrapnel ended up lodged in the headrest of the seat Merino usually occupied but he had opted to sit elsewhere because his “legs were feeling a bit tight”.<\/p>\n

“The seats in the front reclined so I sat up there instead, and it may have saved my life,” said the Premier League and World Cup winner in an interview with The Players’ Tribune., external<\/a><\/p>\n

“I think I have an angel on my shoulder. I’m actually fortunate to be alive at all. <\/p>\n

“A lot of young people probably would not even believe that it happened, or how bad it was, but it marked us all. There was a deafening noise, and then I remember the bus nearly tipping over.”<\/p>\n

Merino recalls seeing blood on the floor, the smell of smoke and the sound of screams, and he went to the hospital afterwards to wait for his team-mate Marc Bartra, who had an operation on a broken wrist.<\/p>\n

The match against Monaco was postponed until the following day, which was criticised<\/a> by Dortmund’s manager, current England boss Thomas Tuchel.<\/p>\n

Sergei Wenergold, a German of Russian origin, was sent to prison in 2018<\/a> after he admitted to the attack. <\/p>\n

Merino’s comments featured in a wider interview which detailed his remarkable comeback from a stress fracture in his right foot in February to lifting the World Cup with Spain five months later.<\/p>\n

“The doctor said, ‘six months’,” said Merino, referring to the length of time he was expected to be out.<\/p>\n

“I was too shocked to even feel sad. I just did the math in my head. The World Cup was four months away.<\/p>\n

“When I told my wife, Lola, that’s when I broke down. My brain already understood, but my heart needed me to say it out loud.”<\/p>\n

Merino added that “when the fog had cleared a little” he used his near escape on the Dortmund bus to spur him on because “things happen for a reason”.<\/p>\n

He had played in the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup but was not selected for the final squad. He did not want to contemplate missing out again.<\/p>\n

“I have to play. I will be at the World Cup, no matter what,” said Merino.<\/p>\n

“I put all the meat on the barbecue, as we say in Spain. They told me they could drill two screws into my foot to give it support. I was like, Vamos, put ’em in.”<\/p>\n

Merino watched his Arsenal<\/a> team-mates secure a first Premier League title in 22 years and celebrated with them, but his focus was on their final game of the season at Crystal Palace<\/a> on 24 May, with Spain boss Luis de la Fuente naming the World Cup squad the following day.<\/p>\n

“Zero minutes in four months. How do you call up a player like that?” Merino reasoned.<\/p>\n

“I spent all week arguing with the [Arsenal<\/a>] boss [Mikel Arteta] and the physios. The plan was for me to return for the Champions League final [against Paris St-Germain on 30 May], and even that was risky. But I had to show Luis that I was ready. Finally, they agreed to give me half an hour against Palace. <\/p>\n

“That day, I was playing for the World Cup, 100%. And after that, I thought I had a good chance.<\/p>\n

“The next day, I turned on Spanish TV. I was sitting on the sofa going, please, please please.<\/p>\n

“At some point, the screen showed a woman in a vineyard… Mikel Merino!”<\/p>\n

“I hugged Lola. I kissed [my son] Marco. My phone blew up with messages.<\/p>\n

“I was going to the World Cup.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino has said a last-minute change of seats on the team coach may have saved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-648147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}