Best strikers in Bundesliga history

is Germany's main football competition and one of the largest and most entertaining national football leagues in the world. Bundesliga has the most average attendance among other leagues and, it's broadcast on television is in over 200 countries.

There have been 57 Bundesliga seasons till now. Amongst all 18 teams that compete in the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich has won the most titles with 29 ones.It's worth mentioning that every year the winner of the Bundesliga receives Meisterschale (Champions' Plate.)Bundesliga clubs also have won some international league titles. The German clubs international achievements are:

• Eight Champions League/European Cup

• Six Europa League/UEFA Cup

• Five UEFA Cup Winners' Cup

•  Nine UEFA Intertoto Cup

• Two UEFA Super Cups

Of course, what should a club possess in order to succeed in Bundesliga or any league in general, are good players. Every year clubs spend a large amount of money to bring some good players into their team.Including capable goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and, obviously, strikers.

Strikers are one of the most valuable individuals in a football teams. If a team has great footballers in other positions but lacks solid strikers the team most definitely will be defeated. Because the chances to score are created but there will be nobody that is good at placing the ball in the opponent's net. And also there were times that actually the chances have been created by forwards themselves.Here we want to talk about the

bundesliga best strikers of all time

.

What should a forward have to be one of the best bundesliga forwards of all time? a combination of pace, strength, positioning dribbling techniques and so many other things that you will find out in this article.

Who are the best strikers in Bundesliga history?

Here is the list of Greatest forwards in the bundesliga era. It must be stated that this list has no particular order. Enjoy.

Uwe Seeler

The first individual whose name is among the best forwards in bundesliga history is Uwe Seeler. A German player who was the first football player to be awarded the Great Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Also, in 2004, he was named one of FIFA's 125 greatest living players by Pelé.

Born on 5 November 1936 in Hamburg, he started his career with his hometown team, Hamburger SV. It's worth mentioning that his father also played for Hamburger.He joined the youth team in  1946 and then started his professional career with them in 1954, making his debut in a DFB-Pokal match when he was just under 18 years old. He scored four goals in that match.

Seeler spent his whole career playing for

even when he was wanted by some foreign clubs. He won both the German football championship and DFB-Pokal once while he was in Hamburg.

As one of the

best strikers in bundesliga history

, Seeler was a talented, prolific striker whose leadership, and consistency are praised. Plus, he is known for his overhead kicks, and aerial abilities, and generally being a powerful forward.In 1978 when he had played just once for Celtic, he retired and ended his career. He also made 72 appearances for the West German national team within his years of playing.

Klaus Fischer

Next on, we have Klaus Fischer. A German player who is mostly remembered for his overhead kick in the 1982 World Cup semi-final against France which, equalized the game. Fischer started more internationally but, this doesn't prevent him to be one of the Greatest bundesliga strikers of All Time. He was the Bundesliga top scorer in 1976 and currently holds the second place among Bundesliga top scorers.

He played for German teams TSV 1860 München, FC Schalke 04, 1. FC Köln and VfL Bochum.He had appeared in 535 Bundesliga games throughout his career from 1968 till 1988.He began his senior career with TSV 1860 München, making 60 appearances, and then moved to Schalke where he actually stayed the most between the clubs he played with.He went to break the record for most goals in the club with 182 goals and almost made 300 appearances. He won DFB-Pokal with The Royal Blues in the 1971–72 season.

One other thing that must be mentioned during his spell at Shalke is his involvement in a bribery scandal in the  1970–71 season which banned him to play for a year. He then joined 1. FC Köln won another  DFB-Pokal, left, went to VfL Bochum, and retired there in 1988.

Known for his abilities, particularly his bicycle kicks, he can go down in history as one of the

bundesliga best forwards ever

.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

German former footballer Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is known as a football executive and  Chairman of the Executive Board of FC

AG nowadays.But he was one of the best strikers in bundesliga history when he was playing his career as a footballer from the early 70s till the late 80s, and of course, he can be still named in this category. He was named  European Footballer of the Year in two consecutive seasons( 1980, 1981) and received the Ballon d'Or.

All of his  310 Bundesliga appearances came with Bayern Munich from 1974 till 1984 and, then he left and played for the Serie A club, Inter Milan, and eventually got signed to a Swiss club, Servette, and retired there.

Rummenigge was born in Lippstadt, West Germany. He started playing football from his youth when he joined Borussia Lippstadt's youth club.After more than ten years, he began his senior career with Bayern Munich in 1974. His career didn't start out very well but he improved himself later on and became one of Munich's best players.

Rummenigge's speed, dribbling abilities, and versatility had placed him among Greatest forwards in bundesliga era. He managed to win the European Cup, Bundesliga, and DFB-Pokal twice uring 10 years at Die Roten. He also won the  1980 European Championship with the West Germany national team.

Ulf Kirsten

Nicknamed Der Schwatte(The Black One,) Ulf Kirsten is another striker to be in the best strikers in bundesliga history list. Till now, he is the only person on the list who was born in East Germany. He capped 100 times, playing for both East Germany and reunified Germany.

Born on 4 December 1965 in a town named Riesa, he began playing football with some of his hometown football youth clubs which, include BSG Chemie Riesa, BSG Stahl Riesa, and

.He then made his professional debut with Dynamo and went to play 153 more matches and scored 57 goals for Dresden.

After the German reunification in 1990, he signed to Bayer Leverkusen and stayed there till 2003, He retired after that with one DFB-Pokal title,350 matches, and 182 goals. He actually is ranked 7th among Bundesliga top scorers.

Although he didn't play with well-known teams and never achieved many club honors, he is definitely one of the bundesliga best strikers of all time. Kirsten was short, yet fast and had a powerful and deadly header. He won the EFFIFU award for being the most efficient striker in the league in the 1999–2000 season. You might find it interesting to know that he served the Stasi(Ministry for State Security ) as an informer in a period of his life.

Manfred Burgsmuller     

Manfred Burgsmüller spent all of his career in the Bundesliga playing for various teams. He appeared in 17 Bundesliga seasons and almost appeared in 447 matches. He mainly established himself as one of the

best forwards in bundesliga history

when he was playing for

and Werder Bremen but, he had worn some other German club jerseys as well. Clubs such as 1. FC Nürnberg,5Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, etc.

Born on 22 December 1949 in Essen, West Germany, Burgsmuller started his professional career with Rot-Weiss Essen in 1968 after he got trained and improved in the club's youth team.After a few years, he went to Bayer Uerdingen, made about 100 appearances, and then came back to Rot-Weiss Essen for his second stint. Actually, he again returned to Bayer Uerdingen to have his second spell there as well.

Eventually, Burgsmüller left Uerdingen for Borussia Dortmund in October 1976 to have his most productive years and score 15 or more goals each season.He then had a one year spell both at 1. FC Nürnberg and Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and after that, it was with Werder Bremen that he could manage to win Bundesliga and DFL-Supercup titles.

Burgsmuller oftentimes played as a midfielder which shows his versatility and his longevity is another reason that claims his place in the best strikers in bundesliga history.

Miroslav Klose

On the continuation of the

Greatest bundesliga strikers of All Time

list, we have Bayern Munich's current assistant coach, Miroslav Klose who was actually a pretty amazing striker. He is the  FIFA World Cup top scorer with 16 goals. Also, he has won the Golden Boot and other individual and team honors as well, some of which we're going to mention later on.  

Klose was born on 9 June 1978 in Opole, Poland but he and his family moved to West Germany during world war 2.Both of his parents were athletes and he followed in their footsteps and became a professional athlete.

He began his professional career with a switch to the reserves at former Bundesliga outfit FC Homburg when he was 20. Later on, he moved to 1.

played for the second team and made his first appearance in the Bundesliga in April 2000. 

Werder Bremen was his next destination when he left Kaiserslautern in 2007. The last Bundesliga club that he joined before he went to Serie A and retired there was Die Roten. Klose won 2 Bundesliga title with The Bavarians.

Although he was more iconic with Germany there is no doubt that he is one of the best bundesliga forwards of all time, thanks to his strength, elevation, accuracy, timing, his finishing ability, and so on.

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Jupp Heynckes

You might know Josef "Jupp" Heynckes as a manager. He has managed several teams such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Schalke 04. 

He has won four Bundesliga titles and two UEFA Champions Leagues throughout his  Managerial career.  He retired from management when he was the Bayern's manager in 2018.

He also was a solid forward and a loyal one as well. Born in Mönchengladbach, Germany, Heynckes spent almost his whole career with his hometown club,

. He just had a 3-year spell with Hannover 96 between his two stints in  Mönchengladbach. He spent 12 years with Die Fohlen, appearing on their side more than 300 times.

He joined the first team in 1963, made his senior career debut,  left in 1967 and returned in 1970. Many consider the 1960s and '70s, Mönchengladbach's golden era, and Heynckes was definitely part of that. He helped his team to win four Bundesliga titles, one UEFA Cup, and one DFB-Pokal title with his goalscoring abilities and of course helped himself to enter Bundesliga top scorers list, ranking in 4th place.

In addition,Jupp Heynckes made 39 appearances for the West Germany  and scored 14 goals.

Robert Lewandowski

Robert Lewandowski is the only non-German individual that is in the list of

best Bundesliga forwards of all time

. Also, he is the only striker in this article that currently plays in the League.

He is the third Bundesliga top scorer with more than 247 goals. He has scored 11 goals so far this season which nobody has surpassed him yet. He recently won the UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award and lord knows how many other honors he will conquer in the continuation of his career.

Lewandowski has played with two German clubs, Dortmund and Bayern.In 2010, he was transferred to Dortmund from the Polish club Lech Poznań for a  €4.5 million transfer fee. With Dortmund, he won two Bundesliga titles and one DFB-Pokal title. Plus he was a part of Dortmund's  2012–13 UEFA Champions League squad which ended up in second place. Speaking of that competition, we can't forget his four goals he scored against Real Madrid in the semi-final. The goals brought him worldwide fame and attracted other club's attention including Bayern.

He eventually joined Die Roten in 2014, has stayed there since now.

His positioning, techniques, and finishing abilities along with his strength, pace, and intelligence makes him one of the

best strikers in bundesliga history

and helped Bayern achieve worldwide success

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Fritz Walter

Friedrich "Fritz" Walter was an Inside forward who played for  1. FC Kaiserslautern his whole career. Born on 31 October 1920 in Enkenbach-Alsenborn,  a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Walter stayed at his hometown club for 19 years. Walter's back history club is interesting.

He first worked at the 1. FC Kaiserslautern club restaurant without telling his family to create a chance of joining the team. He eventually got his way to the club's youth academy, and when he was 17, he made his first-team debut in 1937.

 In 1942 he was drafted into the armed forces and returned in 1945 and manage to win the German football championship twice. Once in  1950–51 season and another in 1952–53 season.

Fritz Walter had played for his national team as well. He appeared in 61 games and scored 33 goals for Germany and, later on, he was the captain of the German squad that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup. 

Walter was known for playing really well in bad wheaters and because of that now the term "Fritz Walter's weather" is used to describe rainy weather conditions. The reason behind that was probably because of his suffering from malaria, like many soldiers that fought the war. Malaria made him unable to stand the heat of the sun during the war.

Anyway, he was one of the best strikers in bundesliga history and he proved that when he scored a spectacular goal in a match against Wismut Aue when he hit the ball back-heel while diving forward.

Gerd Muller

Gerd Muller is definitely one of the

greatest forwrads in Bundesliga era

and the last person on our list of best strikers in Bundesliga history. He was named European Footballer of the Year in 1970, won a  Golden Boot, and was voted 13th in the IFFHS' World Player of the Century election. 

The German striker spent most of his career in Bayern Munich, scoring  365 goals within 427 matches in his career. Speaking of goals, he is the Bundesliga all-time top scorer, which is just one reason that places him among bundesliga best forwards ever. Also, he was the World Cup's all-time top scorer for 33 years.

Born in Nördlingen, Germany on 3 November 1945, he began playing football in 1861 Nördlingen as a youth, and then he joined the senior team in 1963. After a year, he got signed to Bayern Munich.He went to play with Die Roten till 1979. During his spell there, he won four Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal titles, three European Cups, a European Cup Winners' Cup, and  Intercontinental Cup in  1976.

His Speed, lethal acceleration over short distances, agility, and many more things, made him an important player for Bayern.Plus, he had some great teammates such as Franz Beckenbauer and Sepp Maier, which made Die Roten, even more, lethal.

After 15 years at Bayern, he left the Bavarians and Bundesliga to join  Fort Lauderdale Strikers, a team based in the United States. He retired in 1981 and stopped playing but, he will be always remembered as a marvelous striker.

So that was it for the list of

best strikers in bundesliga history

. Did you enjoy that? Do you know any other strikers to be added to our list of the greatest forwrads in Bundesliga era? Let us know in the comment section.

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