Page 71 - Soccer360 Issue 107

KING KROOS
As the new Champions League season gets underway there will be one very noticeable absence. Dan Roberts looks at the incredible top-tier career of the legendary Toni Kroos.
UEFA has come a long way since Real Madrid won the very first Champions League Cup in 1955
Although the Champions League is
going to be slightly different this season, there will still be a lot of familiar names and faces on show. Manchester City
will be hoping to emulate Real Madrid’s domination of the competition and the likes of Kylian Mbappé will be hoping to score the goals that bring success to Europe’s elite.
But there will be something very different too. After 14 years and 151 appearances, the most successful player in Champions League history will be missing, as Toni Kroos chose to retire at the end of Euro 2024, just weeks after collecting his latest winners’ medal.
The former Germany international
had already played in the Champions League when he left Bayern Munich
in 2014, feeling underappreciated and under-used. He missed the Bundesliga powerhouse’s triumph at Wembley
in 2013 through injury but became a regular winner while at Real Madrid, with successes in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2022. Deciding to leave the game on his own terms at the end of last season’s final - ironically held again at Wembley, Kroos was able to show why he was so highly valued by the La Liga club, completing 97% of his passes as Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund to claim its 15th title and a sixth of his own - a record for a single player.
He was as instrumental as ever, whipping in the corner for Dani Carvajal to head in the opener and set Real Madrid on their way to victory. At the age of 34, it could be argued that Kroos is exiting the stage too early. But one thing is for sure, there will not be another like him. If anyone could be given the title of Mr. Champions League, then right now, Kroos is the one.
Parc des Princes and the project to bring a Champions League triumph to the French capital feels a little like it is in stasis at the moment.
It is difficult to class Bayern Munich as a dark horse in any competition it takes
part in but they are one club that might
be able to win the Champions League in 2025 and for it to still be something of a surprise. A lot of attention will be on the English and Spanish clubs as always, but Die Roten would dearly love to lift its seventh title in front of its fans in its own stadium. Their last triumph was in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns and has almost been erased from many fans’ memory banks. The extra league phase games could be a huge positive for what should be a reinvigorated team coming off a season when they didn’t even win the Bundesliga title. Bringing in Michael Olise from Crystal Palace could
prove to be a decisive move by Bayern and the club would always back itself to beat any of the other big European clubs over two legs later in the competition.
Both Germany and Italy have five entrants into this year’s Champions League, of course, after gaining an extra berth
thanks to coefficient rankings last year. Whether that means we will see many of them populating the quarter-finals and semi-finals next year is another question entirely. However, with clubs prohibited from playing teams from their home nation in the league phase, there is a chance that Inter, Bayer Leverkusen, and even Atalanta might do well. As much as the football romantics would probably like to see Girona or Shakhtar Donetsk prevail, the new expanded format is unlikely to do them any favours.
SOCCER360 69
TOP:
Unai Emery has masterminded Aston Villa’s return to the elite
ABOVE:
Bayern Munich would dearly love to lift its seventh title
in front of its fans in its own stadium