Germany’s Footballing Mount Rushmore | OneFootball

Few nations across the annals of the beautiful game can boast the prominence and sheer influence of Germany.

Second among total Ballon d’Or winners only to Argentina and ahead of Brazil in the same category, the central European nation can call upon a collective footballing resume spread across the domestic and international game that would make most other countries blush.

From the ascension of Bayern Munich to becoming unquestionably one of the five biggest clubs in the world, to a large swath of players who have starred for club and country to inexorable levels of personal and collective success, Germany’s legacy has long been cemented.

But as legacy discussions permeate across social media in the modern age, so many fans forget the otherworldly talent that captivated supporters well before the day of their birth.

This does not take away from the wealth of talent that Germany continues to ship off its conveyor belt. Instead, we look to appropriately pay homage to players of a bygone era who helped lay the foundations that helped propel Germany to become a footballing behemoth in its own right.

With that, let’s take a look at four players who truly belong on Germany’s own footballing Mount Rushmore.

Disclaimer: Like any debatable list, opinions will vary. The discourse surrounding differentiating opinions is highly encouraged, but as ever, please keep it respectful and engaging.

Fritz Walter

There can be no discussion of Germany’s legacy without the man who, for many, is credited with starting it all: Fritz Walter.

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Kaiserslautern-born and raised under the watchful eye of the Betzenberg, Walter was the personification of a one-club man. His exploits for Die roten Teufel, alongside his younger brother Ottmar who was a superb goalscorer in his own right, remain an untouchable piece of fabric in 1. FC Kaiserslautern‘s understated history.

Leading the club to German football championship honors in 1950-51 and 1952-53, Walter not only helped put Kaiserslautern on the map, but his captaining of West Germany to an unexpected World Cup triumph over Ferenc Puskás and a vaunted Hungary side in 1954 changed football, at least in Europe, forever.

Against a Mighty Magyars outfit that is considered one of the most gifted national teams in history, and the greatest of all time according to the BBC, Puskás and company decimated all before them until a storied clash with West Germany in Bern.

Come full-time, Walter and the rest of the country were unknowingly on a collision course with a post-Second World War rebirth, while Hungary’s revolution in 1956 broke the team up and dented the nation in a way that it never recovered its on-pitch prowess.

Without Walter in the lead, Germany may never have developed into the powerhouse it has become.

Franz Beckenbauer

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Irrefutable in his status as one of the greatest defenders of all time, there is no question that Franz Beckenbauer would deserve his face chiseled into the face of a mountain.Born in the American Southwest occupied zone in Munich just months after the end of the Second World War, Beckenbauer can boast a claim many footballers cannot; changing the way the game was played.

As the pioneering Libero, Beckenbauer molded himself into becoming such an unassailable master of his craft that ‘Der Kaiser’ rivaled, and probably surpassed, Walter’s influence at club level with Bayern Munich and with the national team.

After four Bundesliga titles, four DFB Pokal triumphs, a trio of European Cup successes, a win at Euro ’72 and the 1974 World Cup, Beckenbauer would go on to star in the United States for storied club New York Cosmos alongside Pelé and others while sowing the seeds for a slow-burn love of football that would inevitably take root on American shores.

After a return to Germany to lead Hamburg to Bundesliga honors in 1981-82, Beckenbauer would go on to manage Germany to a World Cup win at Italia ’90 before guiding Olympique Marseille to a Ligue 1 win the following year before an ultimate return to Bayern on the touchline where he, you guessed it, managed them to a league win in 1993-94.

Beckenbauer’s success on the touchline was almost as influential as his otherworldly talents on the pitch, crafting an image of a player who is not just one of the greatest defenders ever, but one of the greatest players in history.

Gerd Müller

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The third on the list, and like Beckenbauer, boasting an indisputable place, is the legendary Gerd Müller.One of the greatest goalscorers in history, Müller, who was also born in the American Southwest occupied zone less than two months after Beckenbauer, stands tall in a way few can match. Not just in Germany, but globally as well.

Though he was not a one-club man like Walter, his service record at Bayern and for Germany across a glistening career was thought to be incapable of being overcome by any metric until Robert Lewandowski and Miroslav Klose broke long-standing records he previously set.

Still, Müller banked 565 goals across all competitions for Bayern in 607 appearances and remains the club’s greatest-ever goalscorer while still sitting atop the all-time Bundesliga goal chart.

Müller holds numerous other goalscoring accolades, including being one of only three players in history to score 10 goals or more at a World Cup (behind Sándor Kocsis and Just Fontaine), and finally, having the best strike rate (1.1 goals/match) of any player who features on the top-ten goalscoring list in Germany’s international history.

As an absolute killer in the final third for club and country, ‘Der Bomber’, who also enjoyed a stint in the US with Ft. Lauderdale Strikers before retiring, remains the gold standard for goalscoring efficiency given the longevity of his return while being a key figure for a dominant Germany side in the 1970s.

Lothar Matthäus

The fourth and final name that deserves to be included is Lothar Matthäus. Depending on who you ask, others deserve recognition here, including Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Sepp Maier, Philip Lahm, Manuel Neuer, Oliver Kahn, Günter Netzer, Uwe Seeler…you get the idea.

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But perhaps few others better encapsulated the evolution of football in Germany from its rapid rise in the 1950s until Matthäus made his professional debut with Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1979.

An all-action midfielder with intelligence on and off the ball, technical craft, ball-playing ability, and goal return despite often being used in a box-to-box role, his versatility and longevity at the highest level made him one of the greatest midfielders in history irrespective of nationality.

Dubbed by Pelé as the greatest competitor he ever faced, Matthäus’ club career spanned 21 seasons, while representing Germany 150 times across two decades while remaining the all-time caps leader to date.

The winner of the Ballon d’Or in 1990, Matthäus captained Germany to Euro and World Cup wins in 1980 and 1990 respectively, also helping Bayern to thirteen major honors across two stints, in addition to starring for Inter Milan at the height of Serie A’s ethos.

Ranked by France Football into their Ballon d’Or first team in 2020, you will struggle to find a more influential midfielder to ever set foot on a pitch.