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From Robert Lewandowski to Franz Beckenbauer, Marco Reus to Lothar Matthäus and Gerd Müller: the gathering of legends that fill the listing of the Germany’s Participant of the 12 months award is lined with most of the largest abilities ever to have graced the sport.
As all Bundesliga followers will know, Cologne had been the inaugural champions again within the 1963/64 season, but it surely was Hamburg’s Uwe Seeler who was named Germany’s Participant of the 12 months on the finish of a marketing campaign by which he racked up an excellent 30 objectives for the Purple Shorts. The sharp-shooting Seeler – 72 occasions a West Germany worldwide – spent an astonishing 18 seasons with Die Rothosen, the place he collected virtually 500 profession objectives and sealed his place as an undisputed Bundesliga legend who would set a excessive customary for many who adopted.
Because the years progressed, two names now synonymous with formidable dedication and endless success – and identified the world over as symbols of all that’s nice about our beloved recreation – would interchange the Participant of the 12 months baton: Beckenbauer and Müller. No different participant can boast as many German Participant of the 12 months trophies as Beckenbauer, who received the celebrated title 4 occasions in a 10-year span between 1966 and 1976. Throughout that interval, Der Kaiser received 4 Bundesliga championships and 4 DFB Cups with Bayern Munich, and he was additionally captain of the formidable Bayern aspect that received three European Cups in successive years.
Participant of the 12 months legends: Gerd Müller (l.), Sepp Maier (c.) and Franz Beckenbauer – imago/WEREK
On an inventory of earlier Participant of the 12 months winners, the years between 1966 and 1969 reads: Beckenbauer, Müller, Beckenbauer, Müller. The latter continues to be the Bundesliga’s all-time main scorer with 365 objectives in 427 video games and through 15 senior seasons at Bayern, the previous World Cup winner with Germany was named Participant of the 12 months in 1967 and ’69, years when Der Bomber was additionally the Bundesliga’s joint or outright prime scorer with 28 and 30 objectives respectively.
With the daybreak of the Nineteen Seventies, the mighty Borussia Mönchengladbach dominated the listing of those that took prime participant gongs. German champions 5 occasions between 1969 and ’77, The Foals boasted the division’s finest particular person in three consecutive seasons firstly of the last decade. Berti Vogts – a one-club man, chic full-back and twice a Participant of the 12 months – began the ball rolling for Die Borussen, whereas Günter Netzer adopted that up with consecutive wins within the subsequent two years. Like Vogts, playmaker Netzer was one of many many star sights as Gladbach and Bayern started a blistering rivalry that produced a few of the most intense matches the division has ever identified.
Günter Netzer – twice a Germany Participant of the 12 months – nets for Borussia Mönchengladbach. – imago/Pressefoto Baumann
Netzer grew to become a back-to-back Bundesliga champion with Die Fohlen, scoring 82 occasions in 230 video games for the membership he first joined at eight-years-old. A World and European champion with West Germany, Netzer would later win league titles in Spain at Actual Madrid earlier than returning to Germany with Hamburg, the place he performed a key position within the membership’s home and European successes within the late Nineteen Seventies and early ’80s.
Earlier than there was Oliver Kahn (Participant of the 12 months 2000 and 2001) or Manuel Neuer (winner in 2011), Sepp Maier was the principle man who led from the again for that immense trophy-winning Bayern aspect that scooped up all earlier than them within the ’60s and ’70s. The goalkeeping nice – regarded by many as among the best of all time in his place – was thrice a Participant of the 12 months in Germany and the Bavarian ended his profession at Bayern only one recreation shy of 600 appearances in a glittering profession.
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There have been as many as seven golf equipment represented among the many Participant of the 12 months winners within the Eighties as family names reminiscent of Rudi Völler – then of Werder Bremen – Stuttgart’s Jürgen Klinsmann and Thomas Häßler of Cologne obtained the very best acknowledgement for his or her season’s work. Matthäus, in the meantime, picked up the primary of his two victories after West Germany’s 1990 World Cup profitable run; the midfielder memorably captaining his nation to victory in Italy, the place he had been enjoying for Inter Milan. Matthäus was at Bayern when he was honoured for a second time 9 years later, whereas Klinsmann was at Monaco when the striker added his title to the listing of award winners for a second time in the identical decade.
The ’90s was additionally when Borussia Dortmund loved immense success, Die Schwarzgelben profitable the Bundesliga twice, a nicely because the European Cup. The massively influential Matthias Sammer was twice a Participant of the 12 months throughout that point, whereas defender Jürgen Kohler additionally triumphed in what was a person three-in-a-row for BVB.
Borussia Dortmund’s defensive colossus, Matthias Sammer (l.) – imago/Group 2
On the flip of the century, midfielder Michael Ballack was making mesmerising strikes for Bayer Leverkusen, who completed as Bundesliga runners up in addition to reaching the UEFA Champions League closing. Ballack received an unimaginable three Participant of the 12 months titles in 4 seasons with Leverkusen after which Bayern Munich, with striker Ailton – the division’s prime scorer in Bremen’s 2003/04 championship-winning aspect – taking the honours within the midst of Ballack’s unimaginable feats. The Brazilian was the primary non-German to win the award.
Legendary strikers Miroslav Klose and Mario Gomez – profitable for Werder and Stuttgart respectively – preceded Franck Ribery’s 2008 title, whereas Grafite and Wolfsburg can be celebrating a 12 months later. Over the following years the listing of Participant of the 12 months winners reads like a who’s who of Bundesliga mega stars: Arjen Robben, Reus and Bastian Schweinsteiger spark the creativeness with fantastic recollections, as do Kevin De Bruyne and Philipp Lahm.
Watch: Take a visit down reminiscence lane with Robben & Ribery
Dortmund’s Reus would win as soon as extra previous to Lewandowski’s back-to-back triumphs in 2020 and 2021. Among the many prolific Polish striker’s many information, turning into the primary participant in Bundesliga historical past to win three Participant of the 12 months awards in-a-row would rely amongst his best achievements.
What is definite is that, as Lewy goes in the hunt for this explicit hat-trick, the Bayern celebrity has loads of competitors from the division’s main lights who’ve all performed their half in one more memorable Bundesliga marketing campaign.
Watch: All of Lewandowski’s 41 objectives in 2021/22
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