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Footballer of the Year (Germany)

award of a German organization of sports journalists

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ311830 ↗
Source-derived summary

The title Footballer of the Year (German: Fußballer des Jahres) has been awarded in West Germany from 1960 to 1990 and Germany since 1991. Eligible are German players as well as non-German players playing in Germany.

In 1996, the title Women's Footballer of the Year (German: Fußballerin des Jahres) was awarded for the first time. Both awards are determined by a poll of German football journalists from the Association of German Sports Journalists (Verband Deutscher Sportjournalisten) and the publication kicker.

The current titleholders are Harry Kane of Bayern Munich and Giulia Gwinn of Bayern Munich. In 2004, Brazilian Aílton became the first foreign player to attain the honour.

Footballer of the Year

Women's Footballer of the Year

Footballer of the Year for East Germany

From 1963 to 1991, the publication Die Neue Fußballwoche awarded the Footballer of the Year for East Germany award.

Editorial summary

“Footballer of the Year (Germany)” enters the record as award of a German organization of sports journalists. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Footballer, Year and Germany can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960, 1990, 1991, 1996—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1960. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Footballer, Year and Germany.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Footballer of the Year (Germany)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Footballer, Year and Germany provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q311830. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1960, 1990, 1991 and 1996.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Footballer of the Year (Germany)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Footballer of the Year (Germany) primary sources, Footballer of the Year (Germany) archive and Footballer research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Footballer of the Year (Germany)”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Footballer of the Year (Germany)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.