As a fan of German football, you should be proud because Germany has achieved a lot of titles in the history of football. The country has also produced a lot of outstanding footballers over the years. In this article, we will learn about the best German football players who have written their names in history.
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Now, let’s explore best German football players of all time
1: Miroslav Klose
If you watched the 2014 World Cup when Germany became the champion, you would have still remembered Miroslav Klose’s amazing performance. In the tournament, he broke the record by scoring 16 World Cup goals.
In addition, he won the Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich in the same year. Just one year earlier, he won the Coppa Italia with Lazio. He is not only one of the best strikers, but also one of the best German football players in history.
He is better known with the German national team than with his club. Apart from the 16 goals he had in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, he also scored 5 goals in the 2002 tournament and another 5 goals in the 2006 World Cup.
Besides, whenever Klose scored in a game, his team never lost. That’s why he is considered as one of the most successful goal scorers. He has collected all World Cup medals, gold, silver, and bronze. He retired after lifting the World Cup trophy with Germany in 2014.
When it comes to club level, Klose started his career with FC 08 Homburg. Other clubs that he played for include Kaiserslautern, Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. He also challenged himself in Serie A with Lazio. Of course he won some league titles and cup trophies with those clubs as well.
2: Bastian Schweinsteiger
Similar to Klose, Bastian Schweinsteiger is another player with impressive appearance in the 2014 World Cup. Thanks to that performance, he strengthened his position in German football history as one of the best German football players of all time.
Earlier in his career, Schweinsteiger was a winger but he gradually turned into a central midfielder. The talented player spent 13 years as a member of Bayern Munich’s first team and became one of the best midfielders in the world. He was known for having great vision, a powerful shot, and fantastic passing ability.
Throughout his career, he collected eight Bundesliga trophies, a world cup FIFA Club title, a UEFA Super Cup, 7 DFB-Cup titles, and UEFA Champions League trophy. In his 500 appearances for Bayern Munich, he scored 68 goals.
After leaving Bayern Munich, he joined Man United in 2015 and played for the English team for 18 months, then he spent his last seasons with Chicago Fire in MLS.
The player retired in October 2019 after having played 121 international games in which he scored 24 goals. He appeared in 4 European Championships and 3 world cups in his career and became the captain of the national team on 2 September 2014 after Philipp Lahm’s retirement from international football.
3: Matthias Sammer
Sammer had his first game with the national team in 1990 when German defeated Italy. He was a defensive midfielder until 1992 before moving to Borussia Dortmund and became a sweeper.
Thanks to his talent, the ability to interpret the game, and his state of mind on the pitch, he was considered one of the best German football players of all time. In fact, he was the Player of the Tournament in the Euro 1996 when German defeated Czech in the final.
In his career, Sammer won three Bundesliga titles, two as a Borussia Dortmund player and one with Stuttgart. Besides, he also lifted two DFB Supercups and one Champions League. Sammer is undeniably one of the greatest players in German football of all time.
Sammer was a part of the German team in UEFA Euro 1992, when they reached the final but was defeated by Denmark. He was again chosen for the FIFA World Cup 1994 when Germany couldn’t pass the quarter-final stage.
In UEFA Euro 1996, Sammer played in the libero position. He scored very important goals both in the second group game and the quarter-final. As a result, Germany won the tournament and he won Player of the tournament. He played his final game for Germany in a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Ukraine before retiring from international football.
4: Lothar Matthaus
Lothar Matthaus is undoubtedly one of the best German football players in history. He had appeared in 150 games with the Germany’s team, in which they won the World Cup 1990 and Euro 1980. Besides, they were runner-up in the 1982 and 1986 World Cup.
In the 1990 World Cup when Germany defeated Argentina, Matthaus was in the team as a midfielder. He led the team in that tournament and scored 4 goals as well. In the same year, he became European Footballer of the Year after helping his country win the tournament.
He played for Bayern Munich in two different periods, between 1984-1988 and 1992-2000. During that time, he won 7 league championships with the club as well as one Serie A and a UEFA Cup title with Internazionale. He was appointed as the first FIFA World Player of the Year in 1991. With that achievement, he is the only German to win that award ever.
Matthaus appeared in five FIFA World Cups and held the record until 2018. But he still holds the record for playing the most matches in the World Cup, with 25 games. In 1999, when he was 38 years old, he was one more time named German Footballer of the Year. During his 20 years playing professional football, he scored 23 goals in 150 international matches.
In addition, Matthaus holds a position in the FIFA 100 list of the best living soccer players. That list was composed by Pele. Noone ever doubted that because Matthaus was known as a flexible midfielder who was excellent at passing, tackling, tactical sense, and shooting. He is definitely one of the best German football players of all time.
Germany is a strong team and has a position in the world football market. The odds from W88 show that the German is also a favorite team to win the 2022 World Cup alongside a number of other teams like France, Brazil, Spain and Argentina.
Above are the best German football players of all time. Hope that you like this list.
