Public Award 2020

Benedikt Höwedes is a German footballer who played for FC Schalke 04 for 16 years and has been under contract with Lokomotive Moscow since 2018. In 2006 he received the Fritz Walter Gold Medal of the DFB as the best player of the 2006/2007 season of his year. Höwedes became European U21 champion in 2009 and world champion with the German national team in Brazil in 2014.

After joining Vissel Kobe in 2017, Lukas Podolski played his way straight into the hearts of Japanese fans, winning the Japanese Imperial Cup at the end of his time in Japan. In January 2020, Podolski returned to the Turkish Süper Lig and signed a contract with Antalyaspor. With the "Lukas Podolski Foundation", he wants to combat child poverty in particular and offer a perspective to disadvantaged children and young people.

Robin Gosens already joined Vitesse Arnhem II in 2012 while still a junior, playing for FC Dordrecht and Heracles Almelo alongside Vitesse. After two years he left the Netherlands and joined the Italian Serie A with Atalanta Bergamo. With Atalanta he reached the last sixteen of the UEFA Europa League in the 2017/18 season, in which the Lombards narrowly lost to Borussia Dortmund in the sixteenth final. Gosens established himself as a regular on the left flank, and with a third-place finish in Serie A 2018/19, he made it into the Champions League with Atalanta.

It didn't take Toni Kroos long to enchant his fans in Spain. Since he moved to Real Madrid in the summer of 2014, he has been an integral part of the regular line-up, even in bad phases. Three Champions League titles and UEFA Supercup wins in a row, five FIFA Club World Champions, Spanish champions and Cup winners speak for themselves. With the "Toni Kroos Foundation", the player supports seriously ill children and young people as well as their families.

In August 2016, Sané moved from FC Schalke 04 to Manchester City. Since then, he has become an integral part of Pep Guardiola's squad. Due to his speed excellent technique and his dribbling, he thrills the fans in England and Germany.

Ann-Katrin Berger won the German championship with Turbine Potsdam in 2012 and the DFB Indoor Cup in 2014. In 2014 Berger moved to the French Division 1 Féminine to Paris Saint-Germain. With the team, she was runner-up twice behind the permanent title holder Olympique Lyon. In July 2016 Berger left Paris and moved to Birmingham City LFC in England, where she became a regular goalkeeper. With the club she reached the FA Cup Final in 2017. Also in 2017, after a severely swollen lymph node in the neck, Berger was shock-diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She was operated and fought her way back into professional sport very quickly. In January 2019 she went to the Chelsea Ladies. For the rest of the season, however, she only made one appearance there in the league and four in the 2018/19 UEFA Women's Champions League, where defending champions Lyon were one goal up in the semi-finals. After regular goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl moved to VfL Wolfsburg as pregnancy replacement for German national team goalkeeper Almuth Schult, Berger became regular goalkeeper for the Blues.

Since his move to FC Chealsea in 2017, he has been regarded as an established figure in central defence due to his robust playing style. With the national team Rüdiger won the 2017 Confederations Cup.

In August 2018, Kehrer was still consider an unknow in France. But after only a few months PSG coach Thomas Tuchel can hardly do without him anymore. Tuchel gives the 22-year-old his fullest confidence. In addition to his enormous speed, Kehrer´s aggresiv playing style and good header game are convincing.

In 2017 Pascal Groß joined the English Premier League rising team Brighton & Hove Albion. His goal at home against Manchester United on 4 May 2018 ensured his team's place in the league ahead of schedule. Groß is considered an outstanding fighter and fan favourite.

Dzsenifer Marozsán, the 2017 triple winner and player of the year in France, was elected FIFA World player last year for the second time in a row. It was also Marozsán who opened the way to the Olympic gold medal for the german woman´s national team in Brazil in 2016, when she scored the first goal in the 2-1 final against Sweden and assisted the second goal.

In the 2012/13 season, European Under-21 champions Marko Marin made his first international move with Chelsea FC, with whom he won the UEFA Europa League 2012/13 title at the first attempt. In the 2013/14 season, Marin transferred to FC Sevilla in the Primera División on a loan basis and again won the Europa League final. Other borrowing stations were AC Florence, RSC Anderlecht and Trabzonspor. In August 2016 Marin was signed by Olympiakos Piraeus and won the Greek championship. In August 2018, the Serbian first division club and record champions Red Star Belgrade signed Marin on a free replacement basis. He won the national championship with the club in his first season and was named player of the year in Serbia, among other things. From the 2019 / 2020 season Marin was captain of Red Star Belgrade. In January 2020 he signed Al-Ahli Dschidda SC in Saudi Arabia.