Champions League winner Toni Kroos of Real Madrid has been voted Germany's Footballer of the Year 2018. The 28-year-old midfielder received for the first time in the organized by the "kicker" election by German sports journalists the most votes (185) and succeeded the 2014 World Cup captain Philipp Lahm. Second place went to Freiburg's Nils Petersen (39) ahead of Brazilian Naldo von Schalke 04 (38).
"Footballer of the Year - this is a prize that is not so easy to get - and especially not everyone," said Kroos the "kicker" to the award. The 86-time international has won the Champions League four times, three times with Real Madrid, once with Bayern. In 2014 he had a big share in the world title of the German team in Brazil. Just over a month ago, however, Kroos failed with the DFB team historically in the preliminary round in Russia.
Olympic gold medalist and national team captain Dzsenifer Marozsán (105 votes) from Olympique Lyon has been named Football Player of the Year for the second consecutive year. The defending champion clearly prevailed ahead of Bundesliga top scorer Pernille Harder of VfL Wolfsburg (70) and her teammate Alexandra Popp (58). Like Kroos, Marozsán won the Champions League last season.
Bayern Munich's championship coach Jupp Heynckes was voted coach of the year (91 votes), just ahead of Schalke coach Domenico Tedesco (89). Heynckes had taken over Bayern after the record champions had split early in the season by Carlo Ancelotti. After that, the Champions League winner of 2013 led the Munich confidently to the championship. In the DFB Cup, however, he failed in the final, in the Champions League in the semifinals.