AC Sparta Prague
Athletic Club Sparta Praha known as Sparta Prague, is a Czech football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in central Europe, winning the central European Cup three times as well as having reached the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1992 and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1973. Sparta have been successful on the international stage, winning the Small Club World Cup, the predecessor to the FIFA Club World Cup, in 1969. Sparta have won 36 domestic league titles, the Czech Cup 27 times a record, the Czech Supercup twice. Sparta was long the main source for the Czech Republic national football team, however this has ceased to be the case, as the best Czech players exclusively play in foreign leagues. Sparta play at Prague's Generali Arena known as Letná Stadium. At the close of 1893, a small group of young people based around three brothers – Václav and Rudolf Rudl – had the idea of setting up a sports club. On 16 November, the founders' meeting approved the club's articles of association and one month on 17 December, the first annual general meeting took place.
Soon after that, the Athletic Club Sparta came up with its tricolour, in which blue symbolises Europe, red is the symbol of the royal city, though the reason for the yellow is not known any more. At the beginning of the club's football history, the players used to wear black jerseys with a big "S" on the front, they played for two years in black-and-white striped jerseys, which they returned to, wearing them as a reserve strip, for two years in 1996. In 1906, club president Dr. Petřík was in England where he saw the famous Woolwich Arsenal play with their red jerseys and decided to bring one set to Prague. At that time, he did not realise. Together with the red jerseys, Sparta players wear black socks. Shortly after World War I, a team was put together that triggered off the famous period of the 1920s and'30s referred to as "Iron Sparta". A football league in Czechoslovakia was established in the mid-twenties and the club collected title after title. To this day, the fans still recall the names of the players of that period with admiration: Peyer, Perner, Káďa, Kolenatý, Červený.
A few years some no less famous names appeared, such as Hochman, Hajný, Šíma, Silný, Čtyřoký, Košťálek and in particular Oldřich Nejedlý, the top scorer at the 1934 FIFA World Cup. Shortly before this most famous era kicked off, Vlasta Burian, the man who became the king of Czech comedians, played in goal for the club; the milestones of the first golden period of the club's history are two Central European Cup titles, which in the'20 and the'30s enjoyed the same recognition as that of today's Champions League. Sparta's three titles are important milestones in the cup's history. After two triumphs in 1927 and 1935, the third came in 1964, at a time when the cup's importance was falling behind that of other European cups. In 1946, AC Sparta toured Great Britain opening with a 2–2 draw against Arsenal on 2 October. Golden periods alternated with years when Sparta fans only nostalgically remembered the "good old times". After substantial changes driven by the socialist regime, bringing frequent changes of the club's name rather than achievements to be proud of, the title in 1954 was the last one before a long period of misery.
Only the great era of the team around Andrej Kvašňák in the 1960s brought back memories of the club's golden years. There are still many people who recollect the era of Jiří Tichý and Václav Mašek; those were the days when Sparta hosted the biggest number of fans in its history, with the stadium at that time accommodating 40,000. All three of the above-mentioned heroes were part of the national team that finished second at the 1962 World Cup in Chile. Other important players in these "golden years" were Vladimír Táborský and Ivan Mráz. Up until 1975, Sparta was the only Czech club. In this year, due to a number of circumstances, the team dropped to division two; the club only spent one year in this division, with the crucial matches for the club's comeback to the elite being sold out. The club did not win another league title until the early 1980s. Built around Chovanec, Berger, Hašek, Skuhravý and Griga, the team regained its former status and won five league titles in a row between 1986 and 1991.
In 1983 -- 84, the team got as far as the UEFA Cup quarter-finals. In the early 1990s, this successful era was continued by the next generation of players, such as Siegl, Horňák, Němeček, Frýdek, Němec and Kouba. Sparta has achieved a number of international successes, including two Central European Cup titles in the period of "Iron Sparta". More recent high points include Sparta's performance in the first year of the UEFA Champions League, in 1991–92. Sparta defeated Rangers Marseille and reached the semi-final group. Playing Barcelona, Dynamo Kyiv and Benfica, Sparta finished second. Unlike today's system, only the group winner reached the final. Being second in the group, Sparta was unofficially fourth best team. Sparta participated in the group stage of Champions League between 1997 and 2006; the club enjoyed their best Champions League performances in the 1999–2000 and 2001–02 seasons, reaching the now-defunct second group stage on both occasions. In 1999–2000, it won its initial group under the management of Ivan Hašek, was third in the quarter-final group.
In that group, Sparta came
Belgium national football team
The Belgian national football team has represented Belgium in association football since their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA—both of which were co-founded by the Belgian team's supervising body, the Royal Belgian Football Association. Periods of regular Belgian representation at the highest international level, from 1920 to 1938, from 1982 to 2002 and again from 2014 onwards, have alternated with unsuccessful qualification rounds. Most of Belgium's home matches. Belgium's national team have participated in three quadrennial major football competitions, it appeared in the end stages of thirteen FIFA World Cups and five UEFA European Championships, featured at three Olympic football tournaments, including the 1920 Olympic tournament which they won. Other notable performances are victories over four reigning world champions—West Germany, Brazil and France—between 1954 and 2002. Belgium has long-standing football rivalries with its Dutch and French counterparts, having played both teams nearly every year from 1905 to 1967.
The squad has been known as the Red Devils since 1906. During the national player career of forward Paul Van Himst, the most-praised Belgian footballer of the 20th century, Belgium took third place at Euro 1972. After that, they experienced two golden ages with many gifted players. In the first period, which lasted from the 1980s to the early 1990s, the team finished as runners-up at Euro 1980 and fourth in the 1986 World Cup. In the second, under guidance of Marc Wilmots and Roberto Martínez in the 2010s, Belgium topped the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in November 2015 and finished third at the 2018 World Cup. Belgium participates in League A of the first UEFA Nations League edition. Belgium was one of the first mainland European countries to play association football, its practice in Belgium began on 26 October 1863, after an Irish student walked into the Josephites College of Melle with a leather ball. An elitist pastime, during the following decades association football supplanted rugby as Belgium's most popular football sport.
On 1 September 1895, ten clubs for football, athletics and cycling founded the Belgian sports board Union Belge des Sociétés de Sports Athlétiques. On 11 October 1900, Beerschot AC honorary president Jorge Díaz announced that Antwerp would host a series of challenge matches between Europe's best football teams. After some organisational problems, on 28 April 1901, Beerschot's pitch hosted its first tournament, in which a Belgian A-squad and a Dutch B-team contested the Coupe Vanden Abeele. Belgium won, beat the Netherlands in all three follow-up matches. On 1 May 1904, the Belgians played their first official match, against France at the Stade du Vivier d'Oie in Uccle. Twenty days the football boards of both countries were among the seven FIFA founders. At that time, the Belgian squad was chosen by a committee drawn from the country's six or seven major clubs. In 1906, the national team players received the nickname Red Devils because of their red jerseys, four years Scottish ex-footballer William Maxwell replaced the UBSSA committee as their manager.
From 1912, UBSSA governed football only and was renamed UBSFA. During the Great War, the national team only played unrecognised friendlies, with matches in and against France. At the 1920 Summer Olympics, in their first official Olympic appearance, the Red Devils won the gold medal on home soil after a controversial final in which their Czechoslovak opponents left the pitch. In the three 1920s Summer Olympics, they achieved fair results, played their first intercontinental match, against Argentina. However, over the following decade, Belgium lost all of their matches at the first three FIFA World Cup final tournaments. According to historian Richard Henshaw, "he growth of in Scandinavia, Central Europe, South America left Belgium far behind". Although World War II hindered international football events in the 1940s, the Belgian team remained active with unofficial matches against squads of other allied nations. Belgium qualified for only one of eight major tournaments during the 1950s and the 1960s: the 1954 World Cup.
The day before the tournament began, the RBFA was among the three UEFA founders. Dutch journalists considered the draw of the 1954 Belgian team in their opener against England to be the most surprising result of that match day more than Switzerland's victory over the Italian "football stars". However, Belgium were eliminated after a loss to Italy in the second group match. Two bright spots in these decades were wins against World Cup holders: West Germany in 1954, Brazil in 1963. Between these, Belgium defeated Hungary's Golden Team in 1956; the combination of failure in competitive matches, success in exhibition matches, gave the Belgians the mock title of "world champion of the friendlies". The team's performance improved under manager Raymond Goethals. Dressed in white, as the White Devils, Belgium had their first victories at World and European Championships at the 1970 World Cup and Euro 1972. En route to that Euro appearance, their first, they eliminated reigning European champions Italy by winning the two-legged quarter-final on aggregate.
At the end stage, they finished third by winning the consolation match against Hungary. In 1973, the denial of a match-winning goal in their last 1974 FIFA World C
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia, or Czecho-Slovakia, was a sovereign state in Central Europe that existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until its peaceful dissolution into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993. From 1939 to 1945, following its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, the state did not de facto exist but its government-in-exile continued to operate. From 1948 to 1990, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc with a command economy, its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949 and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of May 1955. A period of political liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was forcibly ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by several other Warsaw Pact countries, invaded. In 1989, as Marxist–Leninist governments and communism were ending all over Europe, Czechoslovaks peacefully deposed their government in the Velvet Revolution. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the two sovereign states of Slovakia.
Form of state1918 – 1938: A democratic republic championed by Tomáš Masaryk. 1938 – 1939: After annexation of Sudetenland by Nazi Germany in 1938, the region turned into a state with loosened connections among the Czech and Ruthenian parts. A large strip of southern Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine was annexed by Hungary, the Zaolzie region was annexed by Poland. 1939 – 1945: The region was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovak Republic. A government-in-exile continued to exist in London, supported by the United Kingdom, United States and their Allies. Czechoslovakia adhered to the Declaration by United Nations and was a founding member of the United Nations. 1946 – 1948: The country was governed by a coalition government with communist ministers, including the prime minister and the minister of interior. Carpathian Ruthenia was ceded to the Soviet Union. 1948 – 1989: The country became a socialist state under Soviet domination with a centrally planned economy. In 1960, the country became a socialist republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
It was a satellite state of the Soviet Union. 1969 – 1990: The federal republic consisted of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic. 1990 – 1992: Following the Velvet Revolution, the state was renamed the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, consisting of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, reverted to a democratic republic. NeighboursAustria 1918 – 1938, 1945 – 1992 Germany Hungary Poland Romania 1918 – 1938 Soviet Union 1945 – 1991 Ukraine 1991 – 1992 TopographyThe country was of irregular terrain; the western area was part of the north-central European uplands. The eastern region was composed of the northern reaches of the Carpathian Mountains and lands of the Danube River basin. ClimateThe weather is mild summers. Influenced by the Atlantic Ocean from the west, Baltic Sea from the north, Mediterranean Sea from the south. There is no continental weather. 1918–1920: Republic of Czechoslovakia /Czecho-Slovak State, or Czecho-Slovakia/Czechoslovakia 1920–1938: Czechoslovak Republic, or Czechoslovakia 1938–1939: Czecho-Slovak Republic, or Czecho-Slovakia 1945–1960: Czechoslovak Republic, or Czechoslovakia 1960–1990: Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, or Czechoslovakia April 1990: Czechoslovak Federative Republic and Czecho-Slovak Federative Republic The country subsequently became the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, or Československo and Česko-Slovensko.
The area was long a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the empire collapsed at the end of World War I. The new state was founded by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who served as its first president from 14 November 1918 to 14 December 1935, he was succeeded by his close ally, Edvard Beneš. The roots of Czech nationalism go back to the 19th century, when philologists and educators, influenced by Romanticism, promoted the Czech language and pride in the Czech people. Nationalism became a mass movement in the second half of the 19th century. Taking advantage of the limited opportunities for participation in political life under Austrian rule, Czech leaders such as historian František Palacký founded many patriotic, self-help organizations which provided a chance for many of their compatriots to participate in communal life prior to independence. Palacký supported Austro-Slavism and worked for a reorganized and federal Austrian Empire, which would protect the Slavic speaking peoples of Central Europe against Russian and German threats.
An advocate of democratic reform and Czech autonomy within Austria-Hungary, Masaryk was elected twice to the Reichsrat, first from 1891 to 1893 for the Young Czech Party, again from 1907 to 1914 for the Czech Realist Party, which he had founded in 1889 with Karel Kramář and Josef Kaizl. During World War I small numbers of Czechs, the Czechoslovak Legions, fought with the Allies in France and Italy, while large numbers deserted to Russia in exchange for its support for the independence of Czechoslovakia from the Austrian Empire. With the outbreak of World War I, Masaryk began working for Czech independence in a union with Slovakia. With Edvard Beneš and Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Masaryk visited several Western countries and won support from influential publicists. Bohemia and Moravi
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany and the football league with the highest average stadium attendance worldwide. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary football competition; the Bundesliga comprises 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga. Seasons run from August to May. Most games are played with a few games played on weekdays. All of the Bundesliga clubs qualify for the DFB-Pokal; the winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup. 54 clubs have competed in the Bundesliga since its founding. Bayern Munich has won the Bundesliga the most, winning the title 27 times. However, the Bundesliga has seen other champions with Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach and VfB Stuttgart most prominent among them; the Bundesliga is one of the top national leagues, ranked fourth in Europe according to UEFA's league coefficient ranking for the 2017–18 season, based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons.
The Bundesliga is the number-one football league in the world in terms of average attendance. The Bundesliga is broadcast on television in over 200 countries; the Bundesliga was founded in 1962 in Dortmund and the first season started in 1963. The structure and organisation of the Bundesliga along with Germany's other football leagues have undergone frequent changes; the Bundesliga was founded by the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, but is now operated by the Deutsche Fußball Liga. The Bundesliga is composed of two divisions: the 1. Bundesliga, below that, the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football since 1974; the Bundesligen are professional leagues. Since 2008, the 3. Liga in Germany has been a professional league, but may not be called Bundesliga because the league is run by the German Football Association and not, as are the two Bundesligen, by the German Football League. Below the level of the 3. Liga, leagues are subdivided on a regional basis. For example, the Regionalligen are made up of Nord, Nordost, Süd, Südwest and West divisions.
Below this are thirteen parallel divisions, most of which are called Oberligen which represent federal states or large urban and geographical areas. The levels below the Oberligen differ between the local areas; the league structure has changed and reflects the degree of participation in the sport in various parts of the country. In the early 1990s, changes were driven by the reunification of Germany and the subsequent integration of the national league of East Germany; every team in the two Bundesligen must have a licence to play in the league, or else they are relegated into the regional leagues. To obtain a licence, teams must be financially healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organisations; as in other national leagues, there are significant benefits to being in the top division: A greater share of television broadcast licence revenues goes to 1. Bundesliga sides. 1. Bundesliga teams draw greater levels of fan support. Average attendance in the first league is 42,673 per game — more than twice the average of the 2.
Bundesliga. Greater exposure through television and higher attendance levels helps 1. Bundesliga teams attract the most lucrative sponsorships. 1. Bundesliga teams develop substantial financial muscle through the combination of television and gate revenues and marketing of their team brands; this allows them to attract and retain skilled players from domestic and international sources and to construct first-class stadium facilities. The 1. Bundesliga is financially strong, the 2. Bundesliga has begun to evolve in a similar direction, becoming more stable organizationally and financially, reflecting an higher standard of professional play. Internationally, the most well-known German clubs include Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04, Hamburger SV, VfB Stuttgart, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen. Hamburger SV was the only club to have played continuously in the Bundesliga since its foundation until 12 May 2018, when the club was relegated for the first time. In the 2008–09 season, the Bundesliga reinstated an earlier German system of promotion and relegation, in use from 1981 until 1991: The bottom two finishers in the Bundesliga are automatically relegated to the 2.
Bundesliga, with the top two finishers in the 2. Bundesliga taking their places; the third-from-bottom club in the Bundesliga will play a two-legged tie with the third-place team from the 2. Bundesliga, with the winner taking up the final place in the following season's Bundesliga. From 1992 until 2008, a different system had been used in which the bottom three finishers of the Bundesliga had been automatically relegated, to be replaced by the top three finishers in the 2. Bundesliga. From 1963 until 1981 two, or three, teams had been relegated from the Bundesliga automatically, while promotion had been decided either or in promotion play-offs; the season starts in early August and lasts until late May, with a winter break of six weeks (mid-December through to the end of
Fulham F.C.
Fulham Football Club is a professional association football club based in Fulham, West London, England. Founded in 1879, they compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football, they are the oldest football club from London to play in the Football League. The club has spent 26 seasons in English football's top division, the majority of these in two spells during the 1960s and 2000s; the latter spell was associated with former chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed, after the club had climbed up from the fourth tier in the 1990s. Fulham have reached two major finals: in 1975, as a Second Division team, they contested the FA Cup Final for the only time in their history, losing 2–0 to West Ham United, in 2010 they reached the final of the UEFA Europa League, which they contested with Atlético Madrid in Hamburg, losing 2–1 after extra time. Fulham were formed in 1879 as Fulham St Andrew's Church Sunday School F. C. founded by worshipers at the Church of England on West Kensington. Fulham's mother church still stands today with a plaque commemorating the team's foundation.
They won the West London Amateur Cup in 1887 and, having shortened the name from Fulham Excelsior to its present form in 1888, they won the West London League in 1893 at the first attempt. One of the club's first kits was half red, half white shirts with white shorts worn in the 1886–87 season. Fulham started playing at their current ground at Craven Cottage in 1896, their first game against now defunct rivals Minerva. Fulham are one of the oldest established clubs in southern England playing professional football, though there are many non-league sides like Kent side Cray Wanderers who are several decades older; the club gained professional status on 12 December 1898, the same year that they were admitted into the Southern League's Second Division. They were the second club from London to turn professional, following Arsenal named Royal Arsenal 1891, they adopted a white kit during the 1900 -- 01 season. In 1902 -- 03, the club won promotion from this division; the club's first recorded all-white club kit came in 1903, since the club has been playing in all-white shirts and black shorts, with socks going through various evolutions of black and/or white, but are now white-only.
The club won the Southern League twice, in 1905–06 and 1906–07. Fulham joined The Football League after the second of their Southern League triumphs; the club's first league game, playing in the Second Division's 1907–08 season, saw them lose 1–0 at home to Hull City in September 1907. The first win came a few days at Derby County's Baseball Ground by a score line of 1–0. Fulham finished the season three points short of promotion in fourth place; the club progressed all the way to the semi-final of that season's FA Cup, a run that included an 8–3 away win at Luton Town. In the semi-final, they were beaten, 6–0, by Newcastle United; this is still a record loss for an FA Cup semi-final game. Two years the club won the London Challenge Cup in the 1909–10 season. Fulham's first season in Division Two turned out to be the highest that the club would finish for 21 years, until in 1927–28 when the club were relegated to the 3rd Division South, created in 1920. Hussein Hegazi, an Egyptian forward, was one of the first non-British players to appear in The Football League, though he only played one game for Fulham in 1911, marked with a goal, afterwards playing for non-league Dulwich Hamlet.
During this period and politician Henry Norris was the club chairman and curiously he had an indirect role in the foundation of Fulham's local rivals Chelsea. When he rejected an offer from businessman Gus Mears to move Fulham to land where the present-day Chelsea stadium Stamford Bridge is situated, Mears decided to create his own team to occupy the ground. In 1910, Norris started to combine his role at Fulham with the chairmanship of Arsenal. Fulham became the first British team to sell hot dogs at their ground in 1926. Fulham had several high-profile international players during the 1920s, including Len Oliver and Albert Barrett. After finishing fifth and ninth in their first three seasons in the Third Division South, Fulham won the division in the 1931–32 season. In doing so they beat Torquay United 10–2, won 24 out of 42 games and scored 111 goals, thus being promoted back to the Second Division; the next season they missed out on a second consecutive promotion, finishing third behind Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City.
A mixed bag of league performances followed, although the club reached another FA Cup semi-final during the 1935–36 season. Fulham were to draw with Austria in 1936 before Anschluss. On 8 October 1938, Craven Cottage saw its all-time highest attendance at a match against Millwall, with a crowd of 49,335 watching the game. League and cup football were disrupted by the outbreak of World War II in 1939, with the Football League split into regional divisions temporarily, with a national Football League War Cup and a London War Cup up for grabs. Craven Cottage was used like many grounds for training of the army youth reserves. Post-war, a full league programme was only restored for 1946–47. In the third season of what is now considered the modern era of football, Fulham finished top of the Second Division, with a win-loss-draw record of 24–9–9. John Fox Watson made a pioneering transfer to Real Madrid in 1948, becoming one of the first players from the United Kingdom to sign for a high-profile side abroad.
Promotion to the top tier of English football saw the club perform poorly, finishing 17th in their first y
Kicker (sports magazine)
Kicker Sportmagazin is Germany's leading sports magazine and is focused on football. The magazine was founded in 1920 by German football pioneer Walther Bensemann and is published twice a week Monday and Thursday, in Nuremberg; the Monday edition sells an average of 240,000 copies, while the Thursday edition has an average circulation of about 220,000 copies. The magazine publishes a yearbook, the kicker Almanach, it was first published from 1937 to 1942, continuously from 1959 to date. The magazine kicker first appeared in July 1920 in Germany; the magazine headquarters was in Stuttgart but moved to Nürnberg in 1926. During World War II, the magazine merged with the publication Fußball, was discontinued in fall 1944. After the war, the magazine was again published by the newly incorporated Olympia-Verlag publishing company. Former chief editor Friedebert Becker again began publishing kicker in 1951, for a number of years, both kicker and Sport appeared at the same time. In 1966, kicker was sold to Axel Springer AG.
In 1968, Olympia-Verlag in Nuremberg acquired kicker and merged it with Sportmagazin, published twice weekly since 1952. The first issue of the newly founded kicker-sportmagazin was released on 7 October 1968. Beside the two weekly publications, kicker provides a digital edition since 2012; the online version of kicker.de offers a broad live ticker for over 80 different international leagues. A mobile version of kicker.de can be found among others in the mobile portal of T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and E-Plus. In addition, the online magazine has three apps in the iTunes store; the modern version of kicker covers a number of sporting competitions and events, including: The German Bundesliga, 2. Bundesliga, 3. Liga, Regionalliga The German DFB-Pokal The German national team and women's national team The German Women's Bundesliga Various European leagues and competitions, including the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 Various international football leagues Formula One racing The Olympic Games eSports and competitive video gaming Various other sporting events, depending on on-going competitions kicker is a founding member of European Sports Magazines, an association of football publications.
Kicker annually awards the most prolific scorer of the Bundesliga with the kicker Torjägerkanone award. It is equivalent to the Pichichi Trophy in Spanish football; the ranking of the German football is an assessment of football players of the German Bundesliga, the kicker - sports magazine is carried out. In January 1956, was first produced and published a ranking, since there are each year in the summer and in the winter break of the season a new edition of the traditional ranking. Rangliste des deutschen Fußballs/2010er In 1998, kicker published a list of the best football clubs of the 20th century; the list was based on the votes of prominent figures in association football among former players and managers to name the five best clubs and provide arguments in support thereof. Not all experts stuck to the allotted number of picks. For example, Johann Cruyff decided to choose three teams instead - Ajax and Dynamo Kyiv; each club's trophies and Ballon d'Or winners are shown up until 1999 In 2014, the magazine created a new list of the best clubs in history.
This time it was formed based on the opinions of the magazine's editors. The list was based on criteria as the clubs' history, achievements at international stage, titles won and the career of its own players. Kicker Rangliste des deutschen Fußballs
Torsten Frings
Torsten Klaus Frings is a German former footballer, a manager who most managed Darmstadt 98. A former midfielder, throughout his career he played for several German clubs, namely Alemannia Aachen, Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, before ending his career with Canadian MLS side Toronto FC. At international level, he played 79 matches for the Germany national team since his debut in 2001, represented his nation at two European Championships and two FIFA World Cups, his professional career began at third division Alemannia Aachen before a move to Werder Bremen in 1996–97, helping the Weserstadion outfit to a German Cup final defeat of Bayern Munich in 1999 and tallying more than 160 Bundesliga appearances and 15 goals over five and a half seasons. In 2002, a number of Europe's leading clubs were on Frings's trail prior to the World Cup but he opted for a four-year deal with Borussia Dortmund for a reported fee of €10 million, penning the contract two games into the competition.
A regular in his first term at the Westfalenstadion, Frings played 12 times in the UEFA Champions League, scoring home and away against Lokomotiv Moscow. Frings's 2003–04 season only began on 30 January when he played against Schalke 04, his first game since damaging his knee against VfL Bochum in July, he took over from Tomáš Rosický in the playmaking role and scored four times in 16 games before signing a three-year contract with Dortmund's rivals, Bayern Munich. Despite winning the domestic double with Bayern and making 29 Bundesliga and ten Champions League appearances, Frings never enjoyed his football in Munich, was played out of position by coach Felix Magath. In June 2005, he rejoined Bremen for an undisclosed fee on a three-year deal, helping them past FC Basel into the Champions League group stage. On 29 June 2011, it was announced that Frings had reached an agreement to join Major League Soccer team Toronto FC as a designated player. During the press conference in which Frings was presented to the Toronto media, the club announced the signing of Danny Koevermans.
Frings made his debut for Toronto on 20 July 2011 in a 1–0 home defeat to FC Dallas. On 29 July 2011, Frings made his CONCACAF Champions League debut against Real Estelí in which he was given the honour of wearing the captain's armband for Toronto. Frings became the permanent captain of the club following Maicon Santos's transfer to Dallas. On 27 June 2012, Frings scored his first MLS goal in a 3–0 away victory over Montreal Impact, blasting a free kick in the 52nd minute from 22 yards out. Frings missed the latter portion of the 2012 season after sustaining a hip injury which required arthoscopic surgery. Frings’ subsequent recovery progressed slower than expected leading to his decision to retire from football in February 2013. Club president, Kevin Payne indicated that the team wanted to maintain a relationship with Frings "not just for next season, but for seasons to come." Frings himself said. Frings represented Germany at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan and South Korea, where the German team reached the final, only to be defeated 2–0 by Brazil.
During the tournament, he was part of a controversial call when he prevented a goal with his hand on the goal line in the quarter-final match against the United States. Frings took part at UEFA Euro 2004 and at the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup on home soil, winning a bronze medal in the latter tournament. Frings was also called up to Germany's squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup on home soil. On 9 June 2006, Frings scored Germany's fourth goal in a 4–2 win against Costa Rica in the opening match of the World Cup, with a powerful drive from more than 30 yards. Following Germany's penalty shootout victory over Argentina on 30 June 2006, Frings was fined and suspended by FIFA for two games for his role in the brawl that broke out between the Argentine and German teams after the match. After reviewing video footage of the brawl, FIFA's Disciplinary Committee determined that Frings had punched Argentine forward Julio Cruz and levelled punishment accordingly though Cruz himself had denied that Frings punched him.
This suspension decision, announced by FIFA only the day before Germany's semi-final versus Italy on 4 July 2006, rendered Frings unavailable for the important match – which Germany subsequently lost. The controversy of the decision was sparked by the fact that Frings' role in the brawl had been accentuated in the Italian media after FIFA had announced it closed its investigations against German players. Frings answered to the accusations in an interview: "This is all politics; the Argentinians attack us, I defend myself and the Italians get worked up. With this suspension, FIFA just wanted to show that Germany doesn't get special treatment as the World Cup hosts." Frings was called up to Germany's Euro 2008 squad, which reached the final of the tournament only to be defeated by Spain, but was not included in the team for the 2010 World Cup by German coach Joachim Löw. He played his last international match on 11 February 2009 in a 0–1 home defeat against Norway. In total, he earned 79 caps for Germany.
Frings was an well-rounded and versatile midfielder. He was capable of playing anywhere across the midfield, although he was most comfortable in the centre, running deep from his own team's box to the opposition's box, due to his work-rate, solid first touch a
