Robert Kraft says the New England Patriots are returning to München on Sunday with one goal in mind: beat the Detroit Lions at Allianz Arena. The 85-year-old owner said the trip is not just another date on the calendar. It is a chance to go back to a market where he says the team has built a real following and to show those supporters something better than they saw in 2023.
The game starts Sunday at 15.30 Uhr, and Kraft is already talking about it as a test of whether the Patriots can turn that support into a result. He said fans in Deutschland, Österreich and der Schweiz have always stood behind the team, and he wants the group to be rewarded after a season in which New England did not play its best football. That makes the trip feel less like a showcase and more like a measuring stick.
Kraft has been making the case for that connection for years. He bought the New England Patriots in January 1994 for 172 million US dollars, and the team is now valued at around 10 billion US dollars. Since then, he has tied the club’s brand to Germany in a way few owners have matched. He said the Patriots became active in Deutschland in 2017, before the NFL’s Global-Markets-Programm, and pointed to the 2023 game in Frankfurt as a milestone that moved him because thousands of fans organized a march to the stadium.
He also linked the present to the team’s past. Kraft said the Patriots drafted Sebastian Vollmer in 2009 and told him then that one day they would play in Deutschland. He said the team won two Super Bowls with Vollmer and that the bond with supporters across Germany has only grown since then. He also said Mike Vrabel is the new Head Coach and Drake Maye is the young quarterback, adding that Maye led the team to the Super Bowl in the previous season.
That is what makes Kraft’s message in Munich sharper than a standard overseas pitch. He is thanking fans, but he is also promising a win. The Patriots are not coming to Germany just to be seen. They are coming to München to leave with something that matches the loyalty Kraft says has carried the team across Deutschland, Österreich and der Schweiz for years.
