Eight facts you didn’t know about Toni Kroos
Blessed with excellent vision, an impressive passing range and good spatial awareness, Toni Kroos is one of the fastest improving talents in the game today.
The 27-year-old German international is an underrated personality at the heart of the Real Madrid midfield, covering Los Blancos’ back-line, and simultaneously providing for the club’s lethal frontmen.
Also read: The golden fruit of the German youth system - Toni Kroos
There is, however, probably some Toni trivia you’re not fully aware of. As a testament to the midfielder’s shirt number for the Spaniards, here are eight facts you didn’t know about Kroos:
#1 The youngest player ever to represent Bayern Munich professionally
In his youth career, Kroos plied his trade for Greifswalder SV and Hansa Rostock, before joining the Bayern Munich contingent at 16. A year or so later and the German was given a chance with the first-team and he made history for the Bavarians by becoming the youngest player to represent them professionally, at 17 years, 8 months and 22 days.
It wasn’t just a case of making up the numbers for Toni either, as the former-Munich maestro made two assists after replacing Ze Roberto in midfield, in a game that Bayern went on to win 5-0.
#2 Second most valuable German in the world
Yes, that’s at least according to the website ‘TransferMarkt’ who attributed Kroos with a current estimated value of £51 million, making him supposedly more valuable than the likes of Manuel Neuer, Mats Hummels, Marco Reus and Jerome Boateng. Thomas Müller is the only German worth more than Kroos, with the Bayern Munich forward valued at £64 million.
That makes Kroos the joint-thirteenth most valuable player in world football. However expensive you’d deem the midfielder to be, there’s no denying Real Madrid picked up a brilliant bargain three years ago, when he cost them just a little over £25 million.