Toni Kroos was the silent orchestrator of Germany’s World Cup. Sure, the eventual champions would have been long gone if it weren’t for the outlandish antics of Manuel Neuer, but Kroos embodying the German tactical scheme was vital in the team pressing their identity down on the opposition. Without him, that style would have collapsed upon itself in the late stages, with a losing result all but guaranteed.
Yet, for many, Kroos is a little brother character of sorts. Whether it was looking up to the older Bayern Munich youth project Bastian Shweinsteiger, the appointed golden child Mario Götze, or even the goal poacher/wing hybrid phenomenon that is Thomas Müller, there have been plenty of players for Kroos to look up to despite featuring qualities club and national teammates couldn’t dare replicate.
Videos by VICE
This is likely because Kroos just doesn’t look special. He isn’t the ever-running brute in the middle like Bastian, nor is he the twirling Götze on the ball, weaving between defenders with unnatural ease. It’s next-to-possible for someone to watch an entire game Kroos plays in and hardly notice him at all.
However, while all that may be true, it’s impossible to ignore Kroos’s impact on a game. What Toni lacks in the athletic portion, he more than makes up for on the technical side. The only way to describe him is as the prototype for the next evolution of the Xavi/Andrea Pirlo/Paul Scholes archetype. Kroos may never elevate himself quite to their quality, but at 24, he’s going to make a run at it.
Equipped with hardly rivaled vision on the ball, a screaming shot from either leg, and a willingness to press defenders once his team has been dispossessed, Kroos takes complete control of a game. He’s a hypnotist, with the ball his pocket watch and the other 21 players awaiting manipulation. Look back on every stellar Mario Mandzukic header, Schweinsteiger long goal, or Arjen Robben run, and it likely came from Kroos igniting the chance.
However, despite his form, he had a falling out with the club over wanting to be paid as well as the team’s more readily lauded players. Bayern’s board and manager Pep Guardiola met over this, resulting in a now infamous broken promise that the club would keep Kroos at all costs. Eventually, the board reneged and Kroos sold this summer against Guardiola’s wishes. Sensing an opportunity, Real Madrid snatched Kroos up to pair him with international teammate Sami Khedira in their midfield (for now). £24 million was the agreed upon fee, an outrageous bargain for a player that displays such quality at such a young age.
In Madrid, Kroos will look to come out from underneath the shadows that were always cast over him in his home country. Real Madrid has long been looking for their answer to arch rival FC Barcelona’s passing tandem of Xavi and Iniesta, and have likely found the right mix by pairing Kroos up with Croatian international Luka Modric. So far, it looks to be running on all cylinders. In the Europa Super Cup, Modric and Kroos both passed at a clip of over 90 percent, powering Los Blancos to an incredible team-wide passing rate near their own, which resulted in a smooth 2-0 victory over fellow La Liga club Sevilla.
Now Kroos is set to make the Spanish midfield his domain, and with the always hungry mouths of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale to feed, it’s likely that the German will take the next step in his career, a step that his home country could unfortunately never provide.
Follow Cole Patty on Twitter.
