Euro 2008 Map - Germany

One more of Bill's great map series, this time on finalists Germany. We've got stats on all the players - birthdate, position, number and club - plus a few photos and finally a map of Germany displaying where each player is from. It's a nice way to see where the talent in the German national team is coming from. And as you probably know, it's not only coming from Germany.

Three of the current team (Trochowski, Klose and Podolski) were actually born in Poland although three grew up in Germany. Still an interesting testament to the always complex definition of nationality in Europe, especially in places where the borders have shifted countless times over the years.

Of all the German states North-Rhine Westphalia is the largest source of players with eight. It's the most populous of any of the country's 16 states and is also home to many of Germany's professional clubs - Borussia Dortmund, Schalke, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Arminia Bielefeld, Bochum, Duisburg and many more. Still a third of the team from one state is pretty impressive. Bayern Munich's Philipp Lahm is the sole representative from enormous Bavaria, though I'm pretty certain they're glad they brought him along after Wednesday's match. 

One final thing to note, only three members of the German team play abroad. In this age of endless player movement that is pretty impressive.

Bill Turianski publishes the blog Bill's Sports Maps which features many, many more maps of football and other sports. He is a regular contributor here at Albion Road.