Real Madrid and Germany international Toni Kroos has announced that he will hang up his boots at the end of the Euro 2024 competition. Amidst talks of him extending his contract with the Spanish football giants, Kroos dropped the bombshell on everyone and shocked the football world triggering a variety of responses from fans, teammates, and pundits. Kroos will be the first Real Madrid player to retire from the club since Zinedine Zidane in 2006.
He played his last La Liga match for Real Madrid against Real Betis on Saturday 25th May, 2024. Kroos was subbed off in the 87th minute for Dani Ceballos to a rounding applause from the fans and players. Ceballos gave him a long hug and manager Ancelotti did the same as he made his way off the pitch. It was a very emotional moment for Kroos who later said that he was trying his best to hold back tears but everything gave way when he saw his children. His final game for Madrid will be the Champions League final against Dortmund at Wembley stadium in London on Saturday June 1, 2024 and he has said he wants to be completely focused on bringing home Madrid’s 15th Champions League trophy. The match will be the last time fans see him play in a competitive game in a Real Madrid shirt.
His retirement caps off a beautiful trophy laden career which has lasted 17 years. The 34-year-old midfielder was born on January 4, 1990 in Greifswald East Germany where he started his journey in football, playing briefly for the local youth team Greifswalder SC before transferring to the youth team of Hamza Rostock. He eventually moved to Bayern Munich in 2006 where his career would really take off, earning a promotion to Bayern’s senior team in the 2007/2008 season at the tender age of 17. He made his senior debut for the club in a 5-0 demolition of Energie Cottbus. He assisted two goals in the match despite coming on as a substitute. He made a total of 20 appearances for Bayern in his debut season scoring and assisting important goals; his talent and skill were evident. Kroos’s minutes on the pitch dwindled in 2008/2009 season and he was eventually loaned to fellow Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen when he would really establish himself as a first team player who deserved to start important matches.
During his 18-month loan at Bayer Leverkusen, he was eased into the Leverkusen team and by his second season there he had established himself as an integral part of the team appearing in all but one of Leverkusen’s Bundesliga matches. He eventually ended the 2009/2010 season with nine goals and 12 assists in 33 matches.
Kroos returned to Bayern after the expiration of his loan and became a regular on the team. Ending tthe 2010/2011 season with 37 appearances in all competitions for Bayern. When Jupp Heynckes; his former coach at Leverkusen joined Bayern in the 2011/2012 season Kroos became a first choice player in the club forming a strong midfield partnership with Bastian Schweinsteiger. He ended up playing 51 matches in total for Bayern that season including the Champions League final which Bayern lost to Chelsea on penalties. Kroos eventually won the treble with Bayern in 2013. He was pivotal to the teams progression through the stages of the Champions league but due to an injury he sustained in the quarter final, he couldn’t feature in the final of the competition.
Kroos returned to fitness in the 2013/2014 season and played in the German Super Cup and the UEFA Super Cup. 2014 was a World Cup year and it was in this year that Kroos shone with Germany establishing himself as a truly world class player in the country’s 2014 World Cup triumph. He had been getting call ups to the nation since his youth career but his performance with the national team peaked in the 2014 World Cup campaign. He scored important goals and gave crucial assists in the campaign including scoring a brace two minutes apart in Germany’s 7-1 demolition of host nation Brazil. That amazing campaign earned him the nickname Garçon which means waiter in Portuguese for his precision in delivering passes to the final third. He was on the 10-man shortlist for FIFA’s Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player and was rated by the Castrol Performance Index as the best player of the tournament with a rating of 9.79/10. Germany won the World Cup making Kroos the only player from the former East Germany to win the trophy.
Kroos joined Real Madrid under Carlo Ancelotti after winning the 2014 World Cup for an undisclosed fee which is rumored to be in the neighborhood of €26 million; a price madridistas now consider a steal in retrospect. He partnered with Luka Modric and James Rodriguez in Madrid’s midfield and helped Madrid to a 22-game winning run later in the year, and was named in the UEFA and FIFA Team of the Year in 2014.
The arrival of Zinedine Zidane as manager in 2015 started an era of Champions League dominance for Real Madrid and Kroos was a key part of the midfield. Kroos helped the team to three-peat the Champions League in 2016, 2017, and 2018. He eventually won another Champions League trophy with Madrid in 2022 making him part of a select few players to have won the Champions League five times and now he’s gearing for what could be his sixth and final Champions League trophy.
Kroos retired from international football in 2021 stating that he wanted to focus on his family and his club career but came out of retirement earlier in the year after being approached by current Germany Coach Julian Nagelsamann. He will now retire from both club and international football after the conclusion of the Euro 2024 competition.
Toni Kroos is considered one of the greatest midfielders in the history of the game. He is known for his vision, creativity and the precision of his passing. During his entire spell at Real Madrid he never finished a season with a passing accuracy of less than 90%! Kroos also has excellent set piece ability, taking corner kicks and freekicks for his team. He usually plays as a Central Midfielder but can be deployed as a deep lying playmaker and even higher up the pitch as an attacking midfielder. Kroos has the ability to dictate the tempo of a game, bending the rhythm to the advantage of his team. Real Madrid has submitted that they may have to change their style of play after Kroos leaves because it may be difficult to get another player like him. Though right-footed, Kroos can shoot with both feet and scores goals occasionally.
Records and Trophies
As of May 2024, Kroos has made 181 assists over the course of his professional career for club and country according to transfermarkt. He has 98 assists and 28 goals for Real Madrid in 463 appearances. He scored 24 goals and made a total of 49 assist for Bayern while at Leverkusen he has 10 goals and 13 assists. Currently he has 22 goals and 72 assists in La Liga.
Real Madrid’s iconic number 8 has a plethora of trophies in the cupboard, having won a total of 34 trophies in his career.
Champions League x5
Club World Cup x6
FIFA World Cup x1
La Liga x4
Bundesliga x3
UEFA Super Cup x5
DFB Pokal x3
Spanish Super Cup x4
Spanish Cup x1
German Super Cup x1
Torneio Internacional Algarve U17 x1
Kroos was named German footballer of the year in 2018.
What Next After Retirement?
Toni Kroos has said he would like to stay in Madrid after retirement to support the club of his life. He also started a small club in Germany where he will focus his attention. There are rumors that teammate Federico Valverde will take the number 8 shirt after Kroos’s departure.
Toni Kroos expressed that he has always wanted to retire at the top of his game and he has a chance to do so this weekend. Playing the Champions League final as your last game for your club is definitely a beautiful way to retire. Whether he will win his sixth Champions League trophy and cap off an amazing career with the biggest trophy in club football will be determined on Saturday. What do you think will happen in Kroos’s last game for Real Madrid?