Fans left devastated by shock Toni Kroos retirement announcement (2024)

FAQs

Why did Toni Kroos retire? ›

Above all, Kroos wanted to retire "at the best time of my career" and on his own terms. "With so many examples, you can see that it is not easy, that you can lose this point very quickly. "I never wanted to have the feeling that the club, the fans and the people around me had to say to me at the end: 'It's over!".

Kroos -- who announced his decision to retire this week -- played 87 minutes of Madrid's 0-0 LaLiga draw with Real Betis. It was his second-to-last game for the club, ahead of their Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund on June 1.

Having spent 10 years at Santiago Bernabeu, taking in 464 appearances and winning 21 trophies – including four La Liga titles and as many Champions League crowns – finding a suitable successor to Kroos in the middle of the park will be no easy task for Real.

After 10 years, 463 appearances, 21 trophies — with the potential for a 22nd in the Champions League final — and countless inch-perfect passes, Toni Kroos is retiring on a high at Real Madrid. The announcement on Tuesday was a shock to his team-mates, many of whom posted tributes to the German on social media.

21.94 million EUR (2022)

Toni Kroos / Salary

For anyone who has watched Kroos dominate the game, it probably seems obvious that he makes his team better even now, in the twilight of his career. He's a one-man sea of calm in the midfield storm, slinging perfect passes in all directions as if German doesn't even have a word for pressure.

In 2014, he joined Real Madrid in a transfer worth €25 million. In Madrid, Kroos has won twenty-one trophies, including four La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League titles, three of which he won consecutively from 2016 to 2018, each time being selected in the competition's team of the season.

After being criticised when Germany went out of Euro 2020 (delayed until summer 2021 by the COVID-19 pandemic) against England in the last 16, he announced his international retirement, knowing it would help to prolong his top-level club career.

Kroos made 106 appearances for Germany between 2010 and 2021, scoring 17 goals, and was a key member of the team which won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He retired after facing criticism for his performances in Euro 2020, when Germany were eliminated by England in the round-of-16.

Regardless of how the final pans out, and how the Euros shake out this summer, Kroos's legacy is quite definitive: He is arguably (and in the mind of this author, definitively, for reasons explained here) the best passer in football history, and a top-five central-midfielder of all time.

Has Toni Kroos ever received a red card? ›

Real Madrid dropped points for the second time this season in La Liga after a 1-1 Girona at the Santiago Bernabeu. It did include a career first though for one of their key veterans. German midfielder Toni Kroos received the first red card of his career.

Toni Kroos plays the position Midfield, is 34 years old and 182cm tall, weights 78kg. In the current club Real Madrid played 11 seasons, during this time he played 471 matches and scored 28 goals. How many goals has Toni Kroos scored this season? In the current season Toni Kroos scored 1 goals.

Kroos' contract with Madrid was expiring at the end of this season and the club and the player had reportedly been negotiating an extension. Kroos said in February he agreed to play for Germany at Euro 2024 after a request from coach Julian Nagelsmann.

World Cup winner Kroos calls time on career. Germany and Real Madrid midfielder confirms that he will hang up his boots following UEFA EURO 2024. FIFA World Cup™ winner Toni Kroos has announced that he will retire from football following UEFA EURO 2024 in his homeland this summer.

Toni Kroos will hang up his boots at the end of this season. He will play his last match with Real Madrid in the Champions League final at Wembley and will bid farewell to football by playing with Germany in the upcoming Eurocup.

Toni Kroos will hang up his boots at the end of this season. He will play his last match with Real Madrid in the Champions League final at Wembley and will bid farewell to football by playing with Germany in the upcoming Eurocup. At 34 years old, he once again demonstrates his uniqueness.