Ballon d'Or 2015 Predictions: Why Real Madrid's Toni Kroos Could Win the Award

By David Salazar First Posted: Nov 20, 2014 11:30 AM EST

There are six German players among the final 23 candidates for the Ballon d'Or. Among them is Toni Kroos, a player who had a rather interesting 2014 year.

Unlike every other German on this list, he has played for two different teams in the calendar year in addition to playing in the World Cup.

Some players have struggled when being switched from one team to another, but Kroos has thrived. Is that enough to land him the Ballon d'Or?

Top Moment

For every German player, the great moment is undoubtedly the World Cup run. And Kroos was arguably the best of Germany's entire team, Thomas Mueller withstanding.

He was credited with two goals and three assists through seven games, but a close observation of Germany's results show that he was involved with far more than that.

He delivered a terrific cross for Germany's second goal against Portugal before sending in a terrific cross that Mueller controlled and then fired into the net for a 3-0 goal.

Against Ghana, he sent in a looping corner that eventually made its way to Miroslav Klose for another Germany tally. Then his cross off a setpiece found Mats Hummels' head for the winner against France in the quarterfinals.

And then, Kroos delivered his finest hour against Brazil. He set up the opener off a corner to Mueller before being a major part of the buildup to Klose's historic goal for the 2-0 lead. Kroos scored two straight goals to put the game out of reach.

All in all, he was directly linked with eight of Germany's 18 goals.

And he also connected on 90 percent of his passes at an average of 86.4 passes per game.

Low Point

Almost every German player on this list will be thrilled about the World Cup win. But every player will also want to forget the game that took place on April 29 when Real Madrid took on Bayern Munich and won 4-0 in Bavaria.

Kroos was on the pitch for the onslaught and was powerless to do anything for his team.

Why He Could Win

He was one of the unsung heroes of the World Cup. He did not score goals like Mueller did for Germany, but he was heavily involved in managing Germany's passing style and was the go-to guy at delivering scintillating crosses.

Since arriving in Madrid, he has continued his terrific form as Madrid's general in the midfield. He is connecting on close to 94 percent of his passes for Los Blancos while averaging about 73 passes per game. He already has six assists for the team (his all-time high was eight for Bayern Munich in 24 games) in just 11 matches and recently scored his first goal for the club. He is also averaging two key passes per game while playing in a deeper position.

And he is doing all of this while learning to play a new position for Real Madrid.

Why He Will Not Win

Because there are five other Germans who also won the World Cup on the shortlist. He is not the flashiest of players and does not score a tremendous amount of goals. And that is usually the determining factor in winning this award.