all lowercase) is Germany's leading sports magazine,[citation needed] focused primarily on football. The magazine was founded in 1920 by German football pioneer Walther Bensemann and is published twice weekly, usually Monday and Thursday. Each edition sells around 80,000 copies. Kicker is a founding member of European Sports Media
, an association of football publications.
Kicker annually awards the most prolific scorer of the Bundesliga with the Kicker Torjägerkanone (lit.'Kicker scorer cannon') award. It is equivalent to the Pichichi Trophy in Spanish football.
The magazine also publishes an almanac, the Kicker Fußball-Almanach. It was first published from 1937 to 1942, and then continuously from 1959 to date. They also publish a yearbook (Kicker Fußball-Jahrbuch).
History
Kicker was first issued in July 1920 in
Axel Springer AG. In 1968, Olympia-Verlag in Nuremberg acquired Kicker and merged it with Sportmagazin, which had been published twice weekly since 1952. The first issue of the newly founded Kicker-Sportmagazin was released on 7 October 1968. Beside the two weekly publications, Kicker provides a digital edition since 2012. The online version of kicker.de offers a broad live ticker for over 80 different international leagues.[3] The magazine has three apps in the iTunes store.[4]
Magazine
The modern version of Kicker covers a number of sporting competitions and events, including:
In 2014, the magazine created a new list of the best clubs in history. This time it was formed based on the opinions of the magazine's editors. The list was based on criteria as the clubs' history, achievements at international stage, titles won and the career of its own players. In the Top 10, three teams represented Germany.[6][7]