FIFA 2010 World Cup Special Report: The best German players of all times
Germany has given us many epic players over the years and continues to do so.
This list consists of some retired players and not current internationals. Still barely a few current would have actually made the list of the ten best German players of all time.
10. Horst Hrubesch
Horst Hrubesch has never won a World Cup but he did finish runner up in the 1982 tournament. He was the captain of his club the Hamburg, when the club won their one and only Champions League win in 1982.
An Irish commentator once nicknamed him as "The Monster" and he has plenty of honours to that name. The monster comes into the list as he single handily won the European Championship final for Germany by scoring both the goals for the win in 1980.
Horst Hrubesch has also coached Germany in U21 and U19 sides to the European Championship Glories.
9. Joachim Streich
Joachim Streich played for the former East Germany. He is the second highest scorer in the history of German football; he has scored 53 goals in a total of 98 games for East Germany. He was by far one of the best players that East Germany has produced and he also played in the 1974 World Cup in which he actually scored twice.
Streich was a member of the FIFA Century Club until till later FIFA decided to not to include Olympic Games. After which he was dropped from the Century Club. Joachim Streich actually has 102 appearances in football matches.
8. Oliver Kahn
Germany was not expected to win the 2002 World Cup. Still Germany went all the way to the finals. Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn actually dragged the team to the finals.
That final was also to be one of Kahn's worst as an error made by him, gave Ronaldo the chance to score Brazil's first goal.
Oliver was the first goalkeeper to win the Golden ball at the World Cup and what’s most interesting about Kahn is that he kept 197 clean sheets in Bundesliga in 535 appearances.
7. Karl Heinz Rummenigge
Karl Heinz Rummenigge actually successfully scored 45 goals in a total of 95 appearances for Germany. He was the captain from 1981 to 1986. He was also a part of the 1982 team which finished as runners-up. Rummenigge worked as a TV commentator from 1990 to 1994 for German National Team matches .Also if that was not enough he was also part of the German side which won the European Championship in 1980.
6. Jurgen Klinsmann
Jurgen Klinsmann was one of those players who has literally done it all in international football. He won the European Championship in 1996 and the World Cup in 1990. He has 108 caps and 47 goals. He is still the fourth highest scorer in the history of German football and the second highest appearance maker. Klinsmann was also the first player to score in three consecutive European Championships.
5. Gerhard "Gerd" Muller
Gerd Muller still holds the scoring record for Germany. He shockingly scored 68 times in 62 appearances. He is still the second highest scorer in World Cup history with 14 goals.
Muller has won one World Cup to his name. In 1974, Germany won the World Cup in Munich which is Muller's home ground, in that match they beat the Dutch 2-1. Muller also scored the winning goal.
Another thing that a lot of people don’t know about Muller is that he suffered from alcoholism after retirement. His former colleagues actually had to convince him to go for rehabilitation.
Now Muller works for FC Bayern II.
4. Josef "Sepp" Maier
Sepp Maier is a legend. He is perhaps one of the best keepers if not the best in German history. He earned 95 caps for the Germans. He was on the 1974 World Cup team won it and the 1972 European Championships.
He finished in the 1976 European Championship as a runner-up. He has played in three World Cups for Germany.
Maier was actually part of the national team and mentored Oliver Kahn as a goalkeeping coach until Klinsmann ended his contract.
3. Lothar Matthaeus
Lothar Matthaeus is not known as a nice guy, still he is one of the greatest German footballers of all time. He still holds the records for most appearances for Germany with 150 caps. Currently he manages an Israeli club Maccabi Netanya.
Matthaeus won the World Cup in 1990 after finishing on the losing side in the finals of 1982 and 1986. He also won the 1980 European Championship.
Matthaeus actually played in five World Cups and is the only player in history to do that.
2. Friedrich "Fritz" Walter
Fritz Walter has scored 33 times in 61 appearances for his Germany. He was on the team that brought home Germany's first ever World Cup in 1954. For his club the legendary Kaiserslautern captain out of 411 appearances he scored 380 times. He is still one of Germany's five most honorary captains. In 2003, he was selected by the UEFA as its most golden player in the past 50 years.
1. Franz Beckenbauer
Franz Anton Beckenbauer actually created the role of sweeper. He is the only man to date which has captained three European Cup winning sides. He is also the only man in history to have won the World Cup as a player which was in 1974 and then again as a manager which was in 1990. Currently he writes for Bild, a German tabloid.
Another interesting thing is when Franz Beckenbauer was 18 years old when he got his girlfriend pregnant; and he had no intention of marrying her. Given the conservative social values of the era, he was originally banned from the West German national youth team by the DFB, and only readmitted after some diplomatic wrangling from the side's coach Dettmar Cramer.
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