Review: German Legacy of the Past

Die Katze von Anzing! Still the greatest.

 

Just wondering whether it is possible for Neuer to displace Maier as the greatest German GK and what is the fair parameter to compare what Neuer had and might be achieve in the future juxtaposed with what Maier already achieve.

 

I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who would already place Neuer above Maier.
Personally i'd have Maier at no.3 behind both Neuer & Kahn but generally i think it just comes down to opinions.

Teamwise Maier is the most decorated with 3 European Cups, World Cup & Euro etc. but he also had the good fortune to be surrounded by Beckenbauer, Mueller, Breitner, Netzer, Overath etc so while team honours are important it shouldnt be the absolute defining factor in these arguments.
All 3 were great though, as was Toni Schumacher in his peak years

 

Happy Birthday to my fav player!

 

Happy 70th birthday, Rainer #Bonhof! 🇩🇪

🏆 1972 European Championship
🏆 1974 World Cup
🏆 1980 European Championship#DieMannschaft pic.twitter.com/t8LBg967Wx

— germanfootball_dfb (@DFB_Team_EN) March 29, 2022

Had an incredible career and of course assisted the winning goal for Gerd Muller v Netherlands in 1974.

 

Loddar should have won both Euro 92 and Euro 96.

 

bonhof proving a nightmare for england & liverpool goalkeeper ray clemence in 1978.
2nd one nearly takes his head off.

 

yep, think the only others would be the spanish from 2008-12.

 

The East German Gerd Mueller would be a fair label as he held pretty much every major goalscoring record in East Germany.
top scorer for the national team as well as the leagues alltime leading scorer,
a league record 6 goals in a single game.

Streich goal 1974 World Cup East Germany vs Australia (crappy music included)

 

i'd have Littbarski up there with the best dribblers ive seen in my lifetime.

1.fc Koeln in general has had some incredibly talented players on their books over the years.
from 70's to 90's guys like Overath, Flohe, Schuster, Littbarski, Haessler were not just top class players but really beautiful players to watch.
In recent times it dried up a bit though i do believe Florian Wirtz was a koeln junior before the leverkusen switch.



awesome stuff

 

an agenda-driven media has a lot to answer for in that regard.
Germany has always produced creative players, unfortunetly there are people who equate the period 1999-2004 as the norm for German football (even in that dire period there were guys like Deisler, Scholl, Schneider etc)

Looking at the Ballon Dor from its inception in 1956 through to 1996 German players dominated in terms of winners and overall top 3 placings.

here's a Ballon Dor comparison with other european heavyweights like Italy, France, Spain & England in that 40 year period:


Germany...7 x winners...10 x 2nd place...8 x 3rd place...total of 25 top 3 placings.

France......5 x winners....3 x 2nd place.....6 x 3rd place...total of 14 top 3 placings

Italy..........4 x winners.....8 x 2nd place.....2 x 3rd place...total of 14 top 3 placings

England...4 x winners.....6 x 2nd place.....4 x 3rd place...total of 13 top 3 placings

Spain.......3 x winners.....3 x 2nd place.....4 x 3rd place...total of 10 top 3 placings


Germany also produced 2 ballon dor sweeps of the top 3 places.
In 1972 Beckenbauer won with Gunter Netzer and Gerd Mueller joint 2nd.
In 1981 Rummenigge won with Breitner 2nd and Bernd Schuster 3rd.

the only other nation to ever do a clean sweep of the top 3 placings was Holland in 1988,
Holland overall had the 2nd best record behind Germany in that 40 year period.

of course since then (1996) Germany hasnt produced a single ballon dor winner.
there's a few years you could probably make an argument for a particular player (kahn in early 2000s and neuer in 2014 come to mind)..but anyway it starts to become a bit ridiculous when for a decade and a half it always goes to either messi or ronaldo.

 

Schweini and fellow legend Arne Friedrich there to celebrate Bayern's 10th consecutive Bundesliga title

 

heynckes with both goals in the 1973 uefa cup final 2nd leg vs liverpool.
nice curl on the 2nd one