Toni Kroos biography

Midfielders are the backbone of every football team, as they are usually the ones who make the squad tick like clockwork. While there are many footballers who specialize in the midfield, there are those who stand out from the crowd and shine the brightest in a consistent manner. One such player is

, whose name everyone in the world of football has certainly heard of.

As one of the best midfielders of his generation and of all time, we ought to learn more about

Toni Kroos biography

, as it could inspire us towards greatness, not necessarily in football, but in every field that we set foot on. Sure many of you might be interested to know about the midfielder, who has been nicknamed “The Waiter” by those wowed by his passing skills.

Toni Kroos date of birth

is 4 January 1990, which means that he has already crossed the 30-year threshold into his 30s. While it was previously believed that a footballer above 30 years old is past his prime, many modern world-class players have proven such claims wrong, with football players such as

, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and many more playing at the very top level of football despite being in their mid-30s. It is also interesting that Kroos shares his birthday with Liverpool vice-captain, James Milner, who is also born on 4 January.

Regarding

Toni Kroos nationality

, while many would already know that the

midfielder is Germany as he was born in Germany, there is a slight little detail, which is the fact that he was born in East Germany and was in fact the only one in Germany’s 2014 World Cup squad who was born in East Germany. The reunification of his country happened a year after he was born.

Being born in Germany, it might not be difficult to guess what

Toni Kroos religion

is. The talented midfielder is a Christian just like many other footballers in Germany. It seems that he might not be as religious as the likes of Neymar, but nothing could be said with absolute certainty, as the former Bayern Munich prodigy tends to keep his private life private and not share much about himself.

With that being said, it is difficult not to be interested to have an in-depth look at Toni Kroos biography and delve into the world of the 2014 World Cup winner. Read on to find out how the passing genius initially became an up and coming talent and how he later became one of the best midfielders in football history, whose name will echo in the football halls of fame for years to come.

Everything you need to know about Toni Kroos bio

Below is the information and Toni Kroos biography facts that you might be interested to know about. The life that the German midfielder has led could be set as an example for anyone aiming to reach the pinnacle of their career.

Toni Kroos information

Before having a detailed look at Toni Kroos biography facts, we have provided you a list of basic information about the Real Madrid man that could help you have a more complete overview of him.

Bio

• Full name:

  Toni Kroos

• Nickname:

  The Waiter, Iceman

Physical Stats

• Height:

  1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)

• Eye color:

  Blue

• Hair color:

  Dark Brown

Football Information

• Position:

  Midfielder

• Professional debut:

  26 September 2007

Jersey number:

8

Personal Information

• Date of birth:

  4 January 1990

• Place of birth:

  Greifswald, East Germany

• Marital status:

  Married

• Zodiac sign:

  Capricorn

Now that we have some of the basic information about the hawk-eyed passer, let us have a look at his personal life and professional journey throughout the years.

Toni Kroos early life

Discussing a player’s early life, when it is mentioned that the said player was born to an athletic family, it is quite easy to guess where this is going from then on.

Toni Kroos childhood

has similarities to other footballers born in an athletic family as well, but while we hear stories of difficulties and hardships of having to face poverty, hunger and such problems from some of the other footballers, Kroos had a rather simple life in a family which might be considered by many as the “normal” type.

Toni Kroos life story

as someone who was deeply in love with football began from his early years as he got to be trained with his brother Felix under their father Rolan Kroos, who became a football coach after his son was born. As a disciplined young fellow, who was not as academically inclined and successful as many might have expected of him, Kroos joined the local youth side

 as he started to discover his talents and realize his immense potential.

Improving week in and week out, he got transferred to

youth team, which only acted as a temporary station for the German sensation, who missed quite a big portion of his school time to train and hone his skill.

With all the hard work and effort that he put into his game, he managed to attract quite a lot of attention from some of the best clubs in Germany, as he was discovered by Bayern Munich scouts during his teenage years. He finally joined the Bayern Munich youth side when he was 17 years old and decided to stick with his footballing career rather than pursuing a higher education.

Toni Kroos life story got even more interesting when he managed to get called up to the senior team and make his professional career debut on 26 September 2007, when they humiliated

in a 5-0 rout, in which Kroos provided two assists to Miroslav Klose within only 18 minutes after he was subbed in.

He became the youngest player ever in Bayern Munich’s history at the age of 17 years and 265 days old, which was later broken by his Austrian teammate,

, in 2010. Of course this record currently belongs to Jamal Musiala, who broke the record at the age of 17 years and 115 days old.

Toni Kroos profile

While the early years mentioned on

Toni Kroos bio

 tell us about how he managed to make his way into the Bayern Munich youth team and quickly make his debut for the senior team, making 20 appearances in his first season as a Bayern player, he did not get to settle down at the club as much as he may have wanted, which is quite normal for every teenager who makes their debut early on in their career.

With the young talent not wanting to have his abilities rust, he decided to join

on loan for 18 months on 31 January 2009 to get more first-team action than he used to get at Bayern. Making his debut by coming on as a substitute against

, Kroos got the first team action he was looking for at the Bundesliga side, making more than 30 appearances during his loan spell.

The very next season, having impressed his parent club with his performance at Bayer Leverkusen, he was called back to the senior squad upon the expiration of his loan contract. The German midfielder managed to finally find his feet at Allianz Arena, as he became a vital part of the team. His high work rate and the amount of effort he put into his game helped the Bavarians win their first treble of the 2010s in the 2012/13 season.

It might be hard to imagine Toni Kroos playing for any club other than Real Madrid, but he was in fact initially set to join

in 2014, but a change of plans at the Premier League club and the sacking of David Moyes pushed the midfielder towards Real Madrid, who were planning on a complete overhaul of their squad to start another era of Galacticos. He later joined Los Blancos for €25 million, while his actual market value at the time was believed to be around €42 million.

Being the ninth German footballer to ever play for Real Madrid after the likes of Sami Khedira and

, Toni Kroos made his debut on 12 August 2014 in the UEFA Super Cup match against

, a game which they managed to win and bring home their first trophy with Kroos. Winning your first major trophy at your debut could clearly show how the rest of your career is going to go, which vividly illustrates the German’s career at Real Madrid.

He started his career with Real Madrid with a bang, but his international career was at its very top as well, as he managed to win the 2014 World Cup with Germany, even scoring in the infamous 7-1 rout of Brazil, where he managed to score a brace in a couple of minutes.

Style of play

Those who have watched him play, know exactly what kind of a footballer Toni Kroos is, as his vision, tactical awareness, positioning, creativity and precision have helped him become the ultimate passer in the midfield, who makes the team run like clockwork and dictate the rhythm of the play in his position. Providing so many assists and passing with laser-guided precision, Kroos also got the nickname “The Waiter” from Brazilians who were wowed by his passing technique, with which he has been able to record excellent passing precision over the years.

Joachim Low, manager of the

national football team has even addressed what kind of a player Toni Kroos is, commenting that "how Toni distributes the ball, how he receives it, is very good. He's technically excellent ... He has made progress in the last few matches, I'm extremely satisfied with the player."

Not only is the Real Madrid man a more than capable passer of the ball in open play, he is also quite lethal and hawk-eyed when it comes to taking free-kicks as some of his goals such as the extraordinary free-kick he scored against Sweden in the 2018 World Cup and his phenomenal goal against

from the corner spot have illustrated his talent quite clearly.

Reception

Being one of the vital parts of his national team in winning the 2014 World Cup and also an integral part of his team both at

and Real Madrid, Toni Kroos has received his fair share of praises and accolades, as he is regarded as one of the greatest midfielders to ever grace the pitch. Many footballers, managers and pundits have had their say on how amazing of a player Kroos actually is.

Of course it has been pointed out by Stefan Reinartz, his former teammate, that Toni Kroos did not get enough confidence that he needed from the Bayern Munich board, who believed that the German midfielder was not a world-class player and did not want to pay him more than €10 million in yearly salaries. Surely they have since regretted their decision on not keeping Toni Kroos, as he has turned into more than a world-class player at Madrid.

Goal Celebration

While some footballers such as

’s Neymar, or

’s Antoine Griezmann or even Manchester United’s Jesse Lingard tend to have various ways of celebrating their goals in stylish and sometimes even ridiculous fashions, Toni Kroos sticks to the simple celebrations even when he scores long-range bangers, which if you know Kroos, he always scores long-range bangers. Due to his calm and conservative character, the World Cup winner even had some things to say about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal iconic “Black Panther” celebration, to which the Arsenal man directly responded by saying that the celebration was for his son Curtys.

Toni Kroos outside football

While many high-earning footballers tend to have private parties as they go out to have fun, Kroos tends to stay at home and enjoy his time with his family. That is not to say that he does not do much outside football, as a documentary about his life and profession was produced in 2019 by Broadview Pictures, which was directed by Manfred Oldenburg. Of course we have also seen humanitarian and philanthropic efforts from the former Bayern Munich midfielder over the years, which will be mentioned below as

Toni Kroos biography

reaches his personal life.

Toni Kroos personal life

With the documentary about Kroos published in 2019, many got to have a better look at the German’s personal life and what he does on and off the pitch. It was revealed that Kroos likes to clean his own boots, which came as a surprise to many, including his former teammate

, who currently plays at

. Kroos admitted that many might regard him as a crazy person in doing so, but he stated that he in fact enjoys cleaning his boots and seeing them all clean when looking down.

Even his teammates were surprised to see that such an accomplished and wealthy footballer would only have a two or three pairs of boots, which he cleaned them all by himself. It is also interesting to mention that Kroos is friends with Robbie Williams as he was revealed to be a huge fan of the famous English singer through a set of tweets as he wished Williams a happy birthday.

Family, children and relationships

Toni Kroos was born to quite a normal family who were already successful in the field of sports before their first son, Toni, was born. His parents are Roland Kroos, a former professional wrestler and currently a football coach and Birgit Kammer, a former badminton professional badminton player. Toni’s brother, Felix, is also a professional football player at

. The two have a close relationship and there is no awkwardness between them, despite Toni achieving greater things on a professional level.

Toni Kroos is married to his high school sweetheart Jessica Farber, whom he got married to on 13 June 2015 and with whom he currently has three children, two boys and a girl. His eldest son, Leon, was born on 14 August 2013, his daughter, Amelie, was born on 20 July 2016 and his newborn son, Fin, who was born in 2019.

Philanthropy

When it comes to humanitarian work and philanthropy, not many people could say that they have founded their own foundation. But Toni Kroos could certainly be proud of what he has achieved so far, as he founded the Toni Kroos Foundation in 2015 to help children who are severely ill by aiming to help other children’s aid organizations and hospices around the world as well.

It reads the following on his foundation’s website: “Some people might ask, “Why don’t you just make donations instead of starting a Foundation?” I reply that it’s because I want a long-term personal responsibility and to ensure that funding really goes where it is needed the most – to children and families.”

Legal disputes

While some footballers have certainly gotten into legal disputes with various people and organizations, Toni Kroos has had no legal disputes throughout his life.

Toni Kroos career statistics

Here are the German mastermind’s stats since the very beginning of his career until his very recent game on both club and international level.

Club

Kroos’ career has been an illustrious one so far, with the German midfielder making more than 585 appearances throughout his career playing at three different clubs. He started his career at Bayern Munich and managed to make a total of 205 appearances, scoring 24 goals and providing 49 assists. Before moving to

, Kroos joined Bayer Leverkusen on loan in a break from his career at Bayern Munich and got to play 48 games with the German club in a season and a half, scoring 10 goals and providing a further 13 assists in the process.

Of course he has played at Real Madrid the most, as the midfielder has made more than 295 appearances for Los Blancos since he joined the club in 2014, scoring 20 goals and providing an impressive 70 assists in the process, which is truly amazing since he has been used mostly as a central midfielder, even being deployed as a central midfielder a significant number of times.

International

Not only has the German international’s club career been an illustrious and successful one, his career at international level has never lagged behind. He announced his retierment from international football several days after losing 2-0 to England in the Euro 2020 quarterfinals. Kroos claimed that the reason for his retirement was that he wanted to focus more on his progress at Real Madrid and spend more time with his family, taking deliberate breaks instead of going off to international duties.

The German midfielder made his international debut back in March 2010 when he was 20 years old. Since then and up until his retirement from international football, he made a total of 106 appearances for Die Mannshaft, scoring 17 goals and providing 19 assists in the process. 

Toni Kroos honors

Having played for some of the best and most elite clubs in Europe and the whole world, Toni Kroos has been able to fill his trophy cabinet with numerous collective trophies and individual honors through the years. Here is the full list of collective trophies he has won, and some of the more considerable individual honors of his career:

Overall Toni Kroos has won 4

trophies, 3

titles, 3 DFB-Pokal trophies, 1 German Super Cup, 2 La Liga titles, 2 Supercopa de Espana trophies, 4 UEFA Super Cups, 5 FIFA Club World Cups and most notably the 2014 World Cup.

When it comes to individual honors, the Real Madrid man is also a highly decorated footballer in this regard, as he has been named the 2014 IFFHS World’s Bets Playmaker and the 2018 German Footballer of the Year. Of course these are only some of the noteworthy honors that the German footballer has won, with him being named in the 2014, 2016 and 2017 UEFA Team of the Year, alongside having numerous other individual as well.

With Toni Kroos being only 30 years old in 2020, there is no doubt that his stats will improve even more in time, with him playing his best football at the moment.

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