Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a popular Wikipedia page every day. With 164,184 views on Tuesday, 21 May 2024 our article of the day is Toni Kroos. Toni Kroos (born 4 January 1990) is a German professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for La Liga club Real Madrid and the Germany national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, he is known for his vision, passing, creativity, crossing and set-piece ability. Kroos plays mainly as a central midfielder, but has also been deployed as a deep-lying playmaker in his career. Kroos began his senior club career playing for Bayern Munich, where he made his debut at age 17 in 2007. He was sparingly used, and opted for an 18-month loan spell at fellow Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen, where he became a key contributor, and returned to his parent club with an increased profile in 2010. With Bayern, Kroos won two consecutive league titles (three titles in total), a UEFA Champions League title, two DFB-Pokal titles, and was voted into the league team of the season three times. 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. He has been selected in the FIFPro World11 and UEFA Team of the Year three times, and the league's team of the season twice. He was voted the IFFHS World's Best Playmaker in 2014 and German Footballer of the Year in 2018. Kroos won Golden Player at the 2006 UEFA European Under-17 Championship, where he also finished as top goalscorer, and won the Golden Ball at the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup. He made his senior debut for Germany in 2010, at age 20, and appeared in six major tournaments. Kroos helped Germany win the 2014 FIFA World Cup, where he was top assist provider and voted to the All-Star Team, Dream Team, and German Player of the Year. At UEFA Euro 2016, he was selected to the Team of the Tournament. He announced his international retirement following Germany's elimination from UEFA Euro 2020 in 2021, after being heavily criticised for his poor performance. Kroos announced his return to the national team in 2024 to play the Euro 2024. On 21 May 2024, he announced his retirement after the tournament. This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:23 UTC on Wednesday, 22 May 2024. For the full current version of the article, see Toni Kroos on Wikipedia. This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Follow us on Mastodon at @[email protected]. Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast. Until next time, I'm Matthew Neural.