Ranking of German football
The ranking of German football is an evaluation of football players in the German Bundesliga , which is carried out by the kicker sports magazine . A ranking list was created and published for the first time in January 1956, and since then (with a few exceptions) there has been a new edition of the traditional ranking list every six months in the summer and winter break of the season.
The kicker editors rate all Bundesliga players and German players who are active abroad. The players with the best performances in the past six months according to kicker standards are classified according to their respective player positions (e.g. goalkeeper, central defender, striker, etc.) in the four categories of world class , international class , wider circle and field of vision . Over the decades, the position categories have been changed again and again and adapted to the development of the game systems.
Particularly good performances are rated in the world class category . A total of 106 different players were classified in this category in the history of the ranking, the most frequent being Franz Beckenbauer (27 times). The most world-class performances were achieved by players wearing the Bayern Munich jersey (132 times).
mode
The players are classified into the four categories of World Class , International Class , Further Circle and Field of View . Within the first three categories, the players are ranked according to their performance. In the fourth category (Still or already in the field of vision) the names of the players are listed in alphabetical order, this category also lists players from the 2nd and 3rd leagues , the players with particularly good performances in the lower leagues still outstanding with the additional gradation .
The ranking lists appear in the summer and in the winter break of the season. For the classifications that the kicker editorial team determines every six months in a large round of discussions, it has always been the case that the fundamental qualities of a player are not evaluated, but only how well and consistently the players have used their skills in the past six months. In addition to the Bundesliga games, performance in the games in the UEFA Champions League , the UEFA Europa League and the DFB Cup as well as the international matches played with the respective national team during the same period also count . A further prerequisite is that the player has completed at least half of the competitive games during this time, so that z. B. injured players are not taken into account.
Currently, the players are judged in the positions of goalkeeper , central defender , flank defensive , flank offensive , midfield defensive , midfield offensive and striker .
There is also a separate category for Germans abroad ; In this category, however, the order does not depend on performance, but is arranged according to positions from goalkeeper to striker. After larger tournaments such as world and European championships , the legionnaires participating there were also classified in the other categories among the Bundesliga players in the past. Since January 2018, a distinction has been made in this category between the top class ( Premier League , Primera División , Ligue 1 , Serie A ) with the usual classifications from world class to Blickfeld and the middle class (other foreign leagues), which are analogous to the German 2nd and 3rd leagues League only includes the ratings Outstanding and Field of View .
history
On January 2, 1956, a ranking list of German football appeared in kicker for the first time, which evaluated and assessed the performance of German players throughout 1955. In the following ranking lists - with a few year-round exceptions - the performance of the past six months was decisive. One reason for the introduction of such a ranking was that the stars of the German world championship team from 1954 played distributed in the regional leagues and there were no regular television broadcasts, so that the viewers were mostly limited to following the respective regional league. In order to provide football fans with an overview of German football as a whole, kicker used its reporters spread across Germany and launched the ranking of German football.
In the period from 1955 to 1966, the players were assigned to the positions of the so-called World Cup system . In addition to the goalkeeper, there were on the defensive, the defender and the center half (or stopper), in the middle of the external rotor and in the offensive half , foreign and center forward . Initially, only German players who were also active in Germany were considered. Germans playing abroad were only included in the rankings after major tournaments such as world and European championships . The most common world-class players in the 1950s were Horst Szymaniak , Erich Juskowiak , Helmut Rahn and Uwe Seeler ; The two world champions Fritz Walter and Horst Eckel and goalkeeper Fritz Herkenrath were also among the players who were often considered. Wuppertaler SV had most of the world-class players of the decade in its ranks. Overall, the 1. FC Cologne , Borussia Dortmund and Hamburger SV had the most ratings . The 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Rot-Weiss Essen were also among the permanent guests of the rankings in the early days.
In the 1960s, and especially after the Bundesliga was founded in 1963, Franz Beckenbauer was the top player ahead of Uwe Seeler with eleven world-class ratings . Wolfgang Overath , Karl-Heinz Schnellinger , Willi Schulz and, as the best goalkeeper, Hans Tilkowski were also successful . The best clubs included Hamburger SV, 1. FC Köln and FC Bayern Munich. From 1966 some changes were made to the position categories, the most important being the merging of the positions of the outrunner and half-forward to form a midfielder. The year 1966 was one of the best in the history of the ranking with a total of 14 world-class classifications (in two semi-annual ranking lists); Reasons for this were certainly reaching the World Cup finals in 1966 , but also the European Cup victory by Borussia Dortmund and the strong season of the promoted FC Bayern Munich ( DFB Cup victory and 3rd place).
The year 1970, with a total of 15 world-class players, stands out as particularly successful in the history of the ranking, but the strong 1970 World Cup was rated twice; contrary to the usual procedure, the ranking at the end of the year was valid for the entire year, although there had already been a ranking for the first half of 1970 in the summer, which also took into account the performance at the World Cup. The period from 1974 to 1977 was also excellent with eight world-class players a year. During this time, the World Cup victory in 1974 and the European Cup successes of FC Bayern ( 1974 , 1975 , 1976 ), Borussia Mönchengladbach ( 1975 ) and Hamburger SV ( 1977 ) fell. From December 1970, foreign players who played in the Bundesliga were also taken into account for the first time. However, they were initially rated in a separate category and therefore independent of their position. The tactical innovation of the Libero was also noticeable in the ranking: From the summer of 1971 there were separate categories for the Libero and the Vorstopper , initially replacing the central defender.
The top players of the 1970s naturally include the players in the 1974 world championship around Franz Beckenbauer (16 times world class), Gerd Müller , Berti Vogts and Sepp Maier . A long-running favorite was Jürgen Grabowski , who was represented 19 times in the international class and once in the world class. Even Günter Netzer and foreign stars Kevin Keegan , Allan Simonsen and Ronnie Hellström were represented at that time in the world class. As expected, the teams with the most players listed were the two most successful clubs of the decade: FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach . But Hamburger SV and 1. FC Köln were also often included with their players in the ranking.
While there were still some world-class ratings in the early 1980s - for example seven in 1980 and nine in 1981 - this number decreased over the next few years - to the lowest point in 1986, when no player in the Bundesliga could call up world-class performances. In the ranking list for the winter of 1982/83, the categories right wing and left wing, which were rather sparsely occupied in previous years, were combined to form wingers, while the often very full midfielder category was divided into defensive and offensive. In 1985/86, outside and inside forwards were also merged. From 1989 the foreign players were sorted into the position categories together with the German players and no longer treated separately. The top players of this decade were Toni Schumacher , Karl-Heinz Rummenigge , Paul Breitner and Karlheinz Förster , as well as Hans-Peter Briegel and Lothar Matthäus . The best non-German players were the Austrian Bruno Pezzey and the Belgian goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff . Besides FC Bayern Munich , the most successful clubs of the 1980s were 1. FC Cologne , Hamburger SV and VfB Stuttgart .
| decade | World class | International class | In the wider circle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950s | 18th | 126 | 307 |
| 1960s | 55 | 249 | 496 |
| 1970s | 70 | 388 | 684 |
| 1980s | 44 | 328 | 784 |
| 1990s | 54 | 377 | 954 |
| 2000s | 21st | 278 | 871 |
| 2010s | 71 | 481 | 1023 |
| 2020s | 5 | 13 | 36 |
| total | 338 | 2240 | 5155 |
The 1990 World Cup victory put an end to the lull in world-class performances from previous years, and in 1996 and 1997 the national team won the European Championship in 1996 and the European Cup victories of Bayern Munich , Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund in a row German players. Of course, the best players of the decade also included the world and European champions Klinsmann , Köpke , Kohler and Matthäus as well as Sammer and Häßler . The best foreign players of the 1990s were Stéphane Chapuisat from Switzerland and Rune Bratseth from Norway. In addition to the top German clubs FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, the best clubs were the Italian clubs from Milan, Rome and Turin. In the ranking list at the end of 1990, due to this growing number of legionnaires from the 1990 World Cup, an additional category for Germans abroad was introduced, which should also evaluate the performance of German players playing abroad. There was also the new position of the man deck . In 1992 there was a further distinction between midfielders on the outside, central defensive and central offensive. In 1998, the time of the man hit was over, the more general term defender was used.
When Lothar Matthäus ended his career in 2000, a year later came the end of the Libero in the ranking of German football. In the more modern 4-4-2 system, center and full defenders were played instead, and this tactical development was also reflected in the ranking. Since 2001, positions have been divided into goalkeepers, central defenders, flanks defensive and offensive, midfield defensive and offensive, strikers and Germans abroad. Despite Bayern's CL victory in 2001 and second place in the national team at the 2002 World Cup , the 2000s hardly offered any successes that could cause the kicker to over-fill the world class category; only 21 times in twenty rankings. Only Oliver Kahn and Michael Ballack as well as the Brazilian Lúcio occasionally appeared in the upper part of the ranking. Between 2002 and 2005 there were even six rankings in a row without a single world-class player. The only exceptions that followed were the successful 2006 World Cup and the Frenchman Franck Ribéry in the service of FC Bayern Munich. In addition to FC Bayern, most of the successful players in the ranking this decade had Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Werder Bremen , while Borussia Dortmund and FC Schalke 04 also appeared frequently in the ranking.
FC Bayern's Champions League finals in 2010 and 2012 and Borussia Dortmund's impressive Bundesliga appearances in 2011 and 2012 increased the number of world-class performances in the Bundesliga again. The year 2013 with the triple of Bayern and the German-German Champions League final then led to a total of 13 ratings in the highest class and was only surpassed by the German World Cup title in 2014 . Logically, the most successful players also played in the dress of the two best clubs of the decade: Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. The Bayern players Neuer , Lahm , Schweinsteiger and Müller as well as the Dutch Arjen Robben and the French Franck Ribéry were often represented in the highest category. Then there were the Dortmund Reus and Aubameyang , as well as Hummels and Lewandowski , who ran up for both clubs during this period. In particular at the top Spanish clubs Real Madrid ( Kroos , Khedira , Özil ) and FC Barcelona ( ter Stegen ), some German national players delivered top performances in this decade. Players from VfL Wolfsburg , Schalke 04 and Bayer 04 Leverkusen were also a regular part of the ranking.
The 2020s began with another triple for FC Bayern, with six players listed in the world class.
Chronicle of the ranking
Overview of all rankings from 1955 to today, broken down by decades. The chronicle contains all players in the categories world class , international class and in the wider circle .
Current ranking
Summer 2020
Not yet fully published. Published in the kicker editions of August 27, 2020 (71/2020) and August 31, 2020 (72/2020). The ranking evaluates the first half of 2020 (complete second half of the season including the final tournament of the UEFA Champions League ).
Winter 2019/20
Published in the kicker editions of January 2, 2020 (3/2020), January 6, 2020 (4/2020) and January 9, 2020 (5/2020). The ranking evaluates the second half of 2019.
Criticism and reception
Each edition of the ranking list receives supra-regional reception and dissemination through other media. The Bundesliga clubs also report some of the results of their own players on the club's website.
The ranking is considered "notorious" and regularly causes discussions among fans and experts. Nevertheless, it is considered an “important benchmark” in the professional world (and apparently also among players). In particular, the classification or the lack of individual players regularly leads to sometimes harsh criticism and discussions among fans. In letters to the editor, internet forums and blog entries, they express their displeasure or their approval of certain decisions. Right from the start, the rankings evoked a “strong response” from readers - both positive and negative - according to kicker.
The kicker himself has been aware of the potential for conflict since the first edition and always emphasizes that the ranking list should only be viewed as an opinion, but is judged according to the most objective criteria possible and free of personal or local patriotic influences. Nevertheless, as one of the goals of the ranking list, the magazine also specifies the desire for precisely this critical consideration and discussion; Editor-in-chief Friedebert Becker wrote in the edition of the first ranking list from January 2, 1956: "The more discussion and disputes the list will spark, the sooner this KICKER ranking list fulfills its actual purpose: to liven up the conversations of the football people."
In the course of time, the reasons given by the editors as to why which player is in which category and in which position or even completely absent became more detailed in order to make the selection easier to understand. While only a short section commented on the ranking at the beginning, short articles were written on the individual position categories from the 1970s onwards; today even smaller and larger texts are written about individual players. Since the mid-1980s, kicker has given an expert for each position category - usually a former player who was active in the relevant position - the opportunity to express his opinion on the respective ranking list. The range of ratings ranges from approval and the desire for minor changes to harsh criticism. Sepp Maier commented on a ranking list with the words: “ Raimond Aumann's classification is a bad joke. Although - the joke is not that bad, because I was able to laugh heartily about it. "Also the statements of Gerd Müller (" I would have set up the ranking list very differently. "), Bernd Cullmann (" I am reluctant to I can't agree with that. ”) or Maier again (“ I'm really disappointed with this kicker ranking list. ”) are further examples.
The names and the opaque subdivision of the categories as well as the “overly critical claims of the kicker” are also occasionally criticized.
statistics
Records
A total of 106 different players have been classified 338 times as world class. The record holder is Franz Beckenbauer , who has been world class 27 times. From the summer of 1968 to the summer of 1973, Beckenbauer was placed in the top class eleven times in a row. His record was favored by the fact that until 1970 multiple ratings of a player in different positions were possible. Beckenbauer was listed five times at the same time in two positions. In second and third place are Uwe Seeler with 14 and Berti Vogts and Manuel Neuer with eleven nominations in the world class. The latter is thus also the most successful active player. The best foreign player is Arjen Robben , he was eight times in the world class. Sepp Maier (21) has the most placements in the international class, followed by Lothar Matthäus and Uli Stein (20 each).
FC Bayern Munich players have been in the world class 132 times, followed by 1. FC Köln (34) and Hamburger SV (29). 21 German and 13 foreign clubs have so far had a world-class player in their ranks. FC Bayern also leads the ranking for most of the international and wider classifications.
| space | Surname | number |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Franz Beckenbauer | 27 |
| 2. | Uwe Seeler | 14th |
| 3. | Manuel Neuer | 11 |
| Berti Vogts | 11 | |
| 5. | Gerd Müller | 9 |
| Toni Schumacher | 9 | |
| 7th | Oliver Kahn | 8th |
| Wolfgang Overath | 8th | |
| Arjen Robben | 8th | |
| Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | 8th | |
| Karl-Heinz Schnellinger | 8th |
| space | society | number |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | FC Bayern Munich | 132 |
| 2. | 1. FC Cologne | 34 |
| 3. | Hamburger SV | 29 |
| 4th | Borussia Dortmund | 25th |
| 5. | Borussia Monchengladbach | 21st |
| 6th | Eintracht Frankfurt | 8th |
| VfB Stuttgart | 8th | |
| Werder Bremen | 8th | |
| 9. | 1. FC Kaiserslautern | 5 |
| Bayer 04 Leverkusen | 5 | |
| VfL Wolfsburg | 5 |
Position category timeline
The following table provides an overview of the changes in the individual item categories over time.
| Timeline of the position categories of the ranking list of German football since 1955 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| position | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | |
| goal | goalkeeper | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defense | defender | Full-back | defender | Outside defensive | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Libero | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| stopper | Central defender | Pre-stopper | Man decker | defender | Central defender | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| midfield | Outrunner | Midfield defensive | Central defensive midfield | Midfield defensive | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| midfield player | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Half-striker | Midfield offensive | Midfield centrally offensive | Midfield offensive | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Outside midfield | Outside track | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| attack | Right winger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Winger | Offensive on the outside | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Left winger | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Center Forward | Inside striker | Striker / storm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| foreign countries | Foreign players | Germans abroad | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
literature
- kicker archive of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek , partly available online at historical-lineups.com
Web links
- Statistical evaluation and alphabetical player list for the ranking of German football on historical-lineups.com (PDF; 4.1 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The development of the kicker ranking video from kicker.tv on YouTube.com
- ↑ This is how the kicker ranking list is created on kicker.de from July 3, 2012.
- ↑ A piece of Bundesliga tradition: the kicker ranking list on kicker.de from December 23, 2012.
- ↑ Examples on tz.de , Handelsblatt.de , welt.de , focus.de etc.
- ↑ Examples on the pages of FC Bayern Munich , Borussia Dortmund , Bayer 04 Leverkusen ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Etc.
- ↑ a b Horizont reads ... "kicker". The journalistic reference in the German soccer report on horizont.net from September 26, 2013.
- ↑ Selection of letters to the editor ( Memento of the original dated December 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in response to the rankings collected on www.historical-lineups.com
- ↑ kicker edition 28/1956.
- ↑ Water in the Sahara - or: World class à la kicker article on sportmedienblog.de from July 22, 2010.
