Bundesliga booms in Brazil

Germany secured their fourth Fifa World Cup title on 13 July 2014 thanks to a 1-0 win over Argentina in the Maracana. Head coach Joachim Loew was able to count on a number of players from Germany’s top tier, with 16 of the 23-man World Cup winning squad currently plying their trade in the Bundesliga.
There were also four players from the Premier League (Andre Schürrle, Per Mertesacker, Lukas Podolski, Mesut Özil), two from Serie A (Shkodran Mustafi, Miroslav Klose) and one from the Primera Division (Sami Khedira). Despite there not being a single Bundesliga player in Argentina’s squad, Germany’s top flight was still the most-represented league in the final.
The Bundesliga also topped the list in the semifinals, with 21 players spread across the four teams. Alongside the 16 representatives in Germany’s squad, there was also Dante and Luiz Gustavo of Brazil and the Netherlands’ Arjen Robben, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Paul Verhaegh. The club side with the most players in the World Cup semifinals was FC Bayern München, who had nine first-teamers among the last four (Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, Philipp Lahm, Toni Kroos, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Götze, Thomas Müller, Dante, Arjen Robben). Feyenoord and Chelsea FC followed in second place with five players each.
77 players from Germany’s professional football leagues (72 from the Bundesliga, 5 from the second division) travelled to Brazil to represent their countries – and of course showcase themselves on the world’s biggest footballing stage. Of the 72 Bundesliga players, 39 made the cut for the last 16 (54%), with 25 going on to reach the quarterfinals (35%).
For the numbers compiled in this section and the following sections, players’ club affiliations at the start of the World Cup are taken into account.