Real Madrid center midfielder Toni Kroos is having one of the best seasons imaginable in midfield, and it feels like not enough people are talking about the extent of his greatness in the 2020-2021 season. The German international is crushing it, leading Real each and every week with a consistency that cannot be matched.

Kroos didn't listen. The 28-year-old plays his own game, unperturbed by mundane considerations such as the score-line. Against Mexico, he had been slow to track back and unable to impress his metronomic style on the game, prompting Suddeutsche Zeitung to write about powerful figures in the dressing room doubting him for the very first time.

Kroos was born in Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, on 4 January 1990. [ 36] He was born in the last year of East Germany, several weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall and nine months before German reunification. [ 139]

Kroos also named Gonzalo Castro and Stefan Reinartz in his team, despite only playing with them for 18 months. Germany legend Kroos retired after Germany were eliminated from Euro 2024, bringing an end to an incredible career at club and international level.