RB: Philipp Lahm
Intelligence personified, Philipp Lahm never had blistering pace, wasn’t the most physical and stood at just 5ft 7in tall. It’s a good job, then, that he had a razor-sharp brain coupled with an exceptional technical ability that saw him effortlessly move from left-back to right-back - and even to central midfield - over the course of his glittering career.
In his 12 years as an established first-team Bayern Munich player, Lahm lifted eight Bundesliga titles, six DFB-Pokal trophies and added in a Champions League crown as part of a treble for good measure. The captain for those 2013 triumphs, Lahm raised those three prizes above his head just a year before he was standing with the World Cup trophy at the Maracana Stadium with the armband adorned on his left bicep.
Ever-dependable, Lahm rarely missed a game, too. Between 2006/07 and 2016/17, the German made more than 40 appearances for Bayern Munich in all but two campaigns, and he managed 113 international games, achieved over just a 10-year period.
It’s Lahm’s reinvention of the full-back position where he’s had the most influence, however. The original ‘inverted full-back’, Pep Guardiola often moved the diminutive defender into central midfield to create an overload when in possession - before eventually just starting him in the middle anyway, such was his creative and tactical capabilities.
Upon reflection, retiring at 34 seems a tad too early for a player that never needed to rely on their physicality. But after winning everything there is to win, who are we to say otherwise?
Ryan Dabbs
