Kroos’ plea to his six Real Madrid Ballon d’Or nominated former teammates

Toni Kroos discovered Wednesday that he had been nominated for the Ballon d’Or for the fifth time in his career. The German made the most prestigious list in a brilliant final season in his career, leading Real Madrid to a LaLiga and Champions League double as he also helped Germany to reach the quarter-finals of the European Championship as they were beaten by eventual champions Spain in Stuttgart.

The now retired central player will find out on 28 October if he will win the award, but he is already ‘working’ on becoming winner and in a clear joking manner, the German asked his former Real Madrid teammates to let him win as this will be the last year in which he is eligible to win the prestigious accolade.

“Come on! You six can do it next year,” wrote Kroos in an Instagram story in which all the nominated Real Madrid players featured with the message aimed at Jude Bellingham, Carvajal, Vinicius Jr, Rüdiger and Fede Valverde and new summer signing Kylian Mbappé.

“Thanks for reminding me”

This wasn’t the only joke Toni Kroos made about his nomination for the prestigious award. On X (formerly Twitter), the German reposted the announcement of his nomination from the official Ballon d’Or account, which reported that the midfielder was retired from both club and international football. “(Retired) Thanks for the reminder,” he wrote alongside a laughing crying emoji.

The Icon League

The German has been far from idle since hanging up his boots and has set to open a football academy in Madrid. Kroos has set up his own Kings League: The Icon League and has signed up the lies of Alphonso Davies, Ribéry, Alaba, Rüdiger and Andrich as the presidents of the different clubs. The number 8 even showed last weekend that he has not lost his touch by playing in for B2B United and even managed to get among the goals. His showings in the Icon League sadly will have no bearing in securing him votes for the Ballon d’Or.