Survey hijacked, DFB fooled
Can wins questionable election for National Player of the Year
January 12, 2024, 5:15 p.m
The German national team is not having a good year in 2023. That’s probably why fans are torpedoing the national player of the year survey and brushing off the DFB. In the end, Emre Can wins, even though he only played six of eleven international matches. The BVB captain takes it with humor.
Emre Can is the national player of the year for 2023. As the German Football Association (DFB) announced, the captain of Borussia Dortmund was chosen “by a large majority” as Jamal Musiala’s successor in a vote by the national fan club, despite rather mixed performances. Two German users with a wide reach had previously jokingly called for Can’s election on social media. The fans wanted to make fun of the DFB and the voting. In the end, Can received 64.6 percent of the approximately 50,000 votes cast.
Last year, Can, who celebrated his 30th birthday on the day the election results were announced, only played six of eleven international matches. He was on the field in just 412 of a possible 990 minutes. He didn’t make a big appearance. “More than 30,000 votes for national player of the year – and that on his 30th birthday! Congratulations,” wrote the DFB on the X platform.
Can: “When fun becomes serious…”
Can accepted the award with a wink. “When fun becomes serious… I’m still happy and hey, it was pretty good against Belgium and France too,” the BVB professional wrote on Instagram after the election.
After the call was made on social media, he quickly overtook his previously leading BVB teammate Niclas Füllkrug in the vote. Füllkrug (11.7 percent), who can perhaps still be considered one of the few winners in a very difficult year for the DFB team, came in second, while last year’s winner Musiala came third (9.4).
The National Player of the Year election has been held for 13 years. Mesut Özil is the record winner so far (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016). Otherwise, Bastian Schweinsteiger (2010), Toni Kroos (2014) and Manuel Neuer (2020), among others, won the prize.