- published: 10 Feb 2016
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Toni Kroos (German pronunciation: [ˈtoːni ˈkʁoːs]) (born 4 January 1990) is a German international footballer who plays for Bayern Munich as a central midfielder. He is the older brother of Werder Bremen forward Felix Kroos.
Kroos was born in Greifswald and first played for local club Greifswalder SC, later transferring to the youth team of Hansa Rostock. Kroos – who plays as a midfielder – changed to Bayern Munich's youth setup in 2006. For the 2007–08 season and on, Kroos was named to the senior team, at the young age of 17. Bayern's manager Uli Hoeneß has stated that in the future Toni will play with the number 10 shirt in the Bayern Munich first team when he has more experience.
Kroos has made an astounding start to his Bayern career, making his Bayern Munich debut on 26 September 2007 in the 5–0 mauling of Energie Cottbus and instantly providing two assists for the two goals scored by Miroslav Klose within 18 minutes of his appearance. Kroos also earned Bayern an extremely valuable victory on his UEFA Cup debut away to Red Star Belgrade, coming on as a substitute in the 81st minute and providing an assist for Miroslav Klose and then scoring the winning goal with practically the last shot of the game.
In sport, a golden generation or golden team is an exceptionally gifted group of players of similar age, whose achievements reach or are expected to reach a level of success beyond that which their team had previously achieved. Below is a list of teams who have been referred to by the media as golden generations.
It was first coined by the Portuguese sports media to refer to a group of exceptionally gifted teenage Portuguese footballers. This group of players, spearheaded by "Golden Boy" Luís Figo, won several Football World Youth Championships in 1989 and 1991. This group were close to retirement in the early part of the 21st century, leading the European sports media to spotlight the Golden Generation's chances of winning a senior trophy at tournaments like Euro 2000, World Cup 2002, Euro 2004 - which Portugal hosted, and World Cup 2006.
Since then, it has been used by media in many different countries, with usage spreading to other areas, for example, in rugby.
By winning the gold medal in the Americas Championship 2001, silver medal in 2002 FIBA World Championship, the gold medal in Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics, gold medal in FIBA Diamond Ball 2008, bronze medal in Basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and gold medal in 2011 FIBA Americas Championship played in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. Resulting in Argentina reached the first position in the FIBA Men's Ranking at the end of the 2008 Olympic Games..