TABLE TENNIS PLAYERS from Germany

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary German Table Tennis Players of all time. This list of famous German Table Tennis Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Timo Boll (b. 1981)

With an HPI of 50.42, Timo Boll is the most famous German Table Tennis Player.  His biography has been translated into 39 different languages on wikipedia.

Timo Boll (German pronunciation: [ˈtiːmo ˈbɔl], ; born 8 March 1981) is a German professional table tennis player, who currently plays for Borussia Düsseldorf. He is currently ranked 23rd in the ITTF world rankings as of August 2024. Boll is the most successful German table tennis player of all time, having won several medals at Olympic Games, world cups, and world championships. He was ranked world No. 1 in 2003, 2011 and in March 2018.

2. Jörg Roßkopf (b. 1969)

With an HPI of 39.66, Jörg Roßkopf is the 2nd most famous German Table Tennis Player.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Jörg Roßkopf (born May 22, 1969 in Dieburg, Hesse) is a former professional German table tennis player who is currently the head coach of the German Men's National Table Tennis Team. As a player, he won the title in Men's Doubles at the 1989 World Table Tennis Championships and the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, with Steffen Fetzner as his partner. In men's singles, he won the bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the gold medal at the Table Tennis World Cup in 1998. As a coach, he was awarded the ITTF Star Coach award in 2017. Jan-Ove Waldner considered him to have the best backhand in the world, particularly against backspin. He is one of seven table tennis players to have competed in the first five Olympics since the sport was introduced to the Games in 1988. The others are Swede Jörgen Persson, Croatian Zoran Primorac, Belgian Jean-Michel Saive, Hungarian Csilla Bátorfi, Serbian-American Ilija Lupulesku, and Swede Jan-Ove Waldner. He is sponsored by JOOLA Table Tennis.

3. Steffen Fetzner (b. 1968)

With an HPI of 32.48, Steffen Fetzner is the 3rd most famous German Table Tennis Player.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Steffen Fetzner is a male former table tennis player from Germany. From 1989 to 2000 he won several medals in doubles, and team events in the Table Tennis European Championships, in the World Table Tennis Championships, and in the Table Tennis World Cup. He also won a silver medal in the Olympic Games at Barcelona 1992.

4. Bastian Steger (b. 1981)

With an HPI of 31.73, Bastian Steger is the 4th most famous German Table Tennis Player.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Bastian Steger (born 19 March 1981) is a German table tennis player. He competed for Germany at the 2012 Summer Olympics where he won a bronze medal in the team event. He also won the bronze medal in the men's team event during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

5. Patrick Franziska (b. 1992)

With an HPI of 30.39, Patrick Franziska is the 5th most famous German Table Tennis Player.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Patrick Franziska (born 11 June 1992) is a German table tennis player. He is currently sponsored by Butterfly and plays with FC Saarbrücken-TT in the German Bundesliga (TTBL).

6. Christian Süß (b. 1985)

With an HPI of 27.97, Christian Süß is the 6th most famous German Table Tennis Player.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Christian Süß (born 28 July 1985 in Ahlen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German table tennis player. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Süß won the silver medal as part of the German men's team, together with Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov.