Germany is one of the world's leading football nations and home to Europe's most successful international team.
World Cup 2026 is a chance for Germany to turn four World Cup wins into five, a milestone that would draw Die Mannschaft level with Brazil at the top of the all-time World Cup rankings.
The likes of Jurgen Klinsmann, Matthias Sammer and Rudi Voller don't make the cut for FourFourTwo's list of the 10 best German players ever, which really tells you all you need to know...
10. Oliver Kahn
Oliver Kahn remains the benchmark against which all goalkeepers in Germany are judged. His performances on the way to the final of World Cup 2002 have gone down in Deutschland folklore and he's the only goalkeeper ever to win the Golden Ball at the World Cup.
Nicknamed Der Titan, Kahn played more than 600 times for Bayern Munich and won eight Bundesliga titles, six DFB-Pokal finals and the Champions League. He was part of the squad that won the European Championship in 1996 but his moment, his crowning glory, was six years later on the biggest stage of all.
9. Fritz Walter
Fritz Walter was the captain of the West Germany team that put the first of Germany's four stars above the badge by winning the World Cup in 1954. He was a devastating attacking midfielder who could score and create goals equally effectively.
Walter scored 33 times in 61 appearances for West Germany but is revered at boyhood club Kaiserslautern more than anywhere else. He scored 357 goals in 364 league games and the club's stadium, built in 1985, was named in his honour.
The triumphant skipper in the notoriously drenched 'Miracle of Bern' final in 1954 was so known for his love of playing in the rain that the term 'Fritz Walter Wetter' remains a frequently used part of Bundesliga vernacular.
8. Miroslav Klose
There are better technical footballers than Miroslav Klose who haven't been included in this list but the Polish-born striker was a master of doing the thing that matters most.
Klose is second on Germany's all-time caps list but is in a league of his own when it comes to putting the ball in the net. He scored a record 71 times in 137 appearances and has scored more goals at the World Cup than any other player.
He scored 258 times in 667 matches at club level, winning the Bundesliga twice with Bayern and bagging a Coppa Italia medal while playing for Lazio. He was decent domestically. Internationally, Klose is a legend.
7. Manuel Neuer
Germany's best goalkeeper might not have invented the sweeper-keeper role but Manuel Neuer is deservedly credited with perfecting the art. At his best, Neuer was so good with his feet that Pep Guardiola reportedly had to be talked out of playing him in midfield during their time together at Bayern.
Neuer was the bedrock of historic trebles in 2013 and 2020, and has continued to rack up the domestic honours. At the age of 40, he is now a 13-time Bundesliga winner.
He was the goalkeeper when Germany added their fourth star by winning the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, keeping a clean sheet in the final, naturally.
6. Gunter Netzer
Gunter Netzer was a player of rare intelligence, balance and technical quality. 'Karajan' – so named after the esteemed classical conductor – is widely regarded as the greatest passer Germany has ever produced.
Netzer was part of the West Germany teams that won the European Championship in 1972 and the World Cup in 1974, finishing third in the Ballon d'Or running as a result.
The occasionally frustrating maverick midfielder orchestrated back-to-back Bundesliga titles for Borussia Moenchengladbach and enjoyed similar success after switching to Real Madrid.
5. Uwe Seeler
The undisputed star of German football in the 1960s was Uwe Seeler, whose irrepressible goalscoring instincts fired Hamburg to the title in 1960 and a DFB-Pokal win in 1963.
He scored 43 goals in 72 senior international appearances and guided West Germany to within touching distance of glory at the World Cup in 1966.
The image of a distraught Seeler being helped off the Wembley turf is one of football's most iconic but the statue of his right foot that stands outside HSV's Volksparkstadion, a reward for 490 goals in 580 appearances for the club, is right up there too.
4. Philipp Lahm
Not tall. Not strong. Not fast. Not aggressive. Somehow, Philipp Lahm translated his football intelligence into a career as one of the greatest footballers of all time.
The Bayern stalwart had a world-beating brain rather than top-notch physicality, so much so that Guardiola shifted him from right-back to midfield maestro in 2013. For the next few years, Lahm was arguably the best in the world in both positions.
Lahm won eight Bundesliga titles, six DFB-Pokals and the Champions League, but his greatest successes happened on the international stage. Eight years after opening a home World Cup with a stunning strike against Costa Rica in 2006, Lahm lifted the World Cup trophy as captain in Brazil.
3. Lothar Matthaus
Lothar Matthaus' international career was so long that he played at the European Championship in both 1980 and 2000. West Germany won the former but were dismal 20 years later, and Matthaus was a protagonist for the entire period in between, one way or another.
The sweeper and midfielder's 150 caps is the German record and belongs to a man who captained his team to a World Cup win in Italy in 1990 but missed the European Championship in 1996 altogether.
A divisive character but a teammate and opponent with a ferocious global reputation, Matthaus played in some incredible, all-conquering Bayern teams and a sublime Inter Milan side that won Serie A and UEFA Cup titles.
2. Gerd Muller
Teased for his squat physique as a child, Gerd Muller matured into a stocky and powerful penalty-box wrecking ball and one of the greatest strikers of all time.
Der Bomber tallied 365 goals for Bayern in 427 appearances, a goal for every day of the year at a rate of 0.85 per game.
Known for his strength, powerful shooting and acceleration from a standing start, Muller is Germany's second-highest scorer with 68 goals. Klose scored three more in 75 more appearances and also overtook Ronaldo as the record World Cup scorer – Muller had that accolade between 1974 and 2006.
1. Franz Beckenbauer
Nobody before or since has played the sweeper role quite like Franz Beckenbauer.
Der Kaiser was the earliest proponent of the libero role, dictating play from deep thanks to his virtuoso passing and frequently surging forward with the ball, gliding past opponents to build attacks.
Beckenbauer was a three-time European Cup winner and twice won the Ballon d'Or, winning club honours regularly but hitting the truest heights as the talismanic leader of West Germany for decades.
Beckenbauer was the driving force behind West Germany's wins at the European Championship in 1972 and the World Cup in 1974, later winning the World Cup again as the team's outgoing head coach.
No footballer has matches Beckenbauer's reputation for elegance, composure and inspiration, and no German player is so admired and adored.
