Jürgen Klinsmann

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Jürgen Klinsmann
Personal information
Height 1.82 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Striker (retired)
Team information
Current team
 None
(Bayern Munich manager, effective July 2008)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of June 3, 2006

Jürgen Klinsmann (born July 30, 1964 in Göppingen) is a German football manager and former football player, who played for several prominent clubs in Europe and was part of the German team that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He was one of Germany's premier strikers during the 90s.

He managed the German national team to a third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup.

On 12 July 2006, Klinsmann officially announced that he would step down as Germany's coach after two years in charge and be replaced by assistant coach Joachim Löw. He will take over as manager of Bayern Munich in July 2008, when Ottmar Hitzfeld retires.

Club playing career

Klinsmann was born in Göppingen, Baden-Württemberg. He was first introduced to football at the age of eight, playing every position in his youth, including goalkeeper. He started his professional career at the age of seventeen at Stuttgarter Kickers, which at the time was a second division club. In 1984 he joined the more prestigious Stuttgart club VfB Stuttgart, a perennial first division member.

Besides playing for German clubs VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich, Klinsmann played abroad for Internazionale, AS Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur and Sampdoria. During this time he was under the tutelage of such coaches as Arsène Wenger and Giovanni Trapattoni, among others.

The first time he arrived at Tottenham he was not popular in England, partly because he played in the 1990 Germany team that knocked England out of the World Cup, and partly because of his reputation as a diver. After his Tottenham debut, when he poked fun at himself by diving across the pitch to celebrate his first goal, he became much more popular. One Guardian journalist, who had written an article called "Why I Hate Jürgen Klinsmann", wrote another two months later called "Why I Love Jürgen Klinsmann". Klinsmann went on to win the 1995 Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year.[1]

During his second stint at Tottenham, Klinsmann decided to retire from playing professional football in the summer of 1998 after the World Cup. Under the pseudonym Jay Goppingen, Klinsmann made a comeback as a player in 2003 for Orange County Blue Star in the American Premier Development League. The 39-year-old was able to score five goals in eight appearances, helping his team to reach the playoffs. The name is taken from the town of Göppingen, where Klinsmann was born.

German national team

Olympic medal record
Representing  West Germany
Men's Football
Bronze medal – third place 1988 Seoul Team Competition

Klinsmann had a fruitful international career, seeing his first Germany duty in 1987 and ultimately collecting 108 caps along with 47 international goals. He participated in the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal; the 1988, 1992 and 1996 European Championships, reaching the final in 1992 and becoming champion in 1996. He was also an important part of the German team in the World Cups of 1990 (in which he scored three goals), 1994 (five goals), and 1998 (three goals), winning the World Cup in 1990. He was the first player ever to score at least three goals in each of three World Cups, later joined by Ronaldo of Brazil. He still remains second all-time in World Cup goals scored by a German with 11.

He scored 47 goals for Germany in the top-level international games and is only second to Gerd Müller (68 goals) in the German history. His 108 international caps is also ranked No. 2 in Germany after Lothar Matthäus.

Coaching career

Upon retiring from active play, Klinsmann started his commercial career. He became the vice-president of a sports marketing consultancy based in the United States and was involved in Major League Soccer as part of the Los Angeles Galaxy team.

Germany national team

On 26 July 2004, he returned to Germany as the new coach of the national team, succeeding former teammate and strike partner Rudi Völler. Klinsmann subsequently embarked on an aggressive program to revamp the management of the team. Bringing fellow German striker Oliver Bierhoff on board helped diffuse public relations duties of the previous combined post away from the actual coaching aspect of the position. Furthermore, he created a youth movement to breathe life into an aging squad on the heels of a disastrous showing at Euro 2004. In the run up to the 2006 World Cup, Klinsmann attracted criticism from German fans and the media following poor results, such as the 4-1 loss to Italy. A particular subject of criticism was that Klinsmann commuted to Germany from the United States, which was the target of a campaign by the "Bild" tabloid. It should be noted that Klinsmann had previously eliminated some privileges Bild traditionally had with the national team, such as receiving the team lineup the day before a match, and 24/7 exclusive access to the team. His largely offensive tactics have irritated some, who complain that he ignores defensive football. He announced a squad of young players for the 2006 World Cup, basing his selection policy on performance, not reputation.

Klinsmann as manager of Germany in 2005

During the 2005 Confederations Cup, he regularly rotated his goalkeepers regardless of their performances, which drew the ire of Bayern Munich's Oliver Kahn. On April 7, 2006, Klinsmann finally decided to relegate Kahn to the bench and designated Arsenal's Jens Lehmann as his first choice goalkeeper. This choice followed Lehmann's performances in the 2006 Champions League in which his Arsenal team bowed out in the final against Barcelona.

2006 World Cup

In the 2006 World Cup, the performances of Klinsmann's team silenced his critics. The team recorded three straight wins against Costa Rica, Poland and Ecuador in the first round, earning Germany first place in Group A. The first game of the knock out stage was a 2-0 victory over Sweden, and in the quarter-finals, Klinsmann's team defeated Argentina, winning 4-2 on penalties. The teams drew 1-1 after 120 minutes after an equalising goal from Miroslav Klose in the 80th minute.

In the semi-final on July 4th, Germany lost a close match with Italy 2-0 after goals in the final minutes of extra time from Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero. After the match, Klinsmann praised the performance of his young team. They beat Portugal 3-1 in the third place play-off, where he played Kahn instead of Jens Lehmann. The victory triggered a massive Berlin parade the following day where Klinsmann and the team were honoured by the public.

Afterward, Franz Beckenbauer, previously a strident critic of Klinsmann's, declared his desire to see Klinsmann continue as coach. There was also widespread public support for Klinsmann due to his team's spirit and attacking style of play. The team's strong performance is thought by some to have renewed national pride and restored Germany's reputation as a top footballing nation. Due to his success coaching the national team, Klinsmann was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz. He was even referred to as "Kaiser", a term meaning "emperor" in German, usually reserved for German footballing greats, e.g. Franz Beckenbauer.

Resignation as national coach

Despite the highly acclaimed performance at the World Cup and the praise earned, Klinsmann declined to renew his contract, informing the DFB of his decision on 11 July 2006. The decision was officially announced by the DFB on the 12 July 2006. Klinsmann's assistant Joachim Löw was appointed as the new head trainer at the same press conference.[2][3] Klinsmann said "My big wish is to go back to my family, to go back to leading a normal life with them.... After two years of putting in a lot of energy, I feel I lack the power and the strength to continue in the same way."[4]

Post-Germany

After leaving the Germany job, Klinsmann was linked with many coaching roles. He was linked repeatedly with the vacant United States national team coaching job after the decision not to renew the contract of Bruce Arena after the 2006 World Cup, but the job eventually went to Bob Bradley.

In April 2007, the English newspaper The Sun reported that Roman Abramovich wanted Klinsmann to coach his team Chelsea.[5] Klinsmann reportedly rejected the offer.[6] Klinsmann was also linked with managerial roles with Tottenham Hotspur and Los Angeles Galaxy,[7] but the jobs went to Juande Ramos and Ruud Gullit respectively. Klinsmann was also linked to the Liverpool job as speculation mounted over Rafael Benitez's future. Tom Hicks admitted in a statement that Liverpool 'sounded out' Klinsmann about the job at Anfield if Rafael Benitez was to leave for either Real Madrid or Internazionale. Franz Beckenbauer claimed that Klinsmann would be "ideal" as the new coach of the England national team after Steve McClaren was sacked in November 2007, prior to the eventual appointment of the Englishman's replacement, Fabio Capello.[8]

Bayern Munich

On January 11, 2008, it was confirmed that Klinsmann would take over as manager of Bayern Munich from July 2008.[9] This will mark Klinsmann's first managerial position at club level, succeeding current coach Ottmar Hitzfeld.

Honours

Club Titles

National Team

Personal Honours

Caps

  • 108 caps for Germany (47 goals)
  • 14 Olympic caps (8 goals)
  • 8 Under-21 caps (3 goals)
  • 3 Under-16 caps
  • Statistics refer to League games/goals only (except for international games).
Template:S-awards
Preceded by German Footballer of the Year
1988 		Succeeded by
Preceded by German Footballer of the Year
1994 		Succeeded by
Preceded by FWA Footballer of the Year
1995 		Succeeded by
Preceded by German Football Manager of the Year
2006 		Succeeded by
Sporting positions
Preceded by Germany captain
1994–1998 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Germany Head Coach
2004-2006 		Succeeded by

Personal life

Klinsmann Bakery in Botnang, Stuttgart

Klinsmann's family operates a bakery in Stuttgart's Botnang district and consequently he is sometimes affectionately referred to as the "baker's son from Botnang". Klinsmann is in fact a qualified baker's apprentice. He is married to Chinese-American Debbie Chin, a former model. Klinsmann currently lives in Huntington Beach, California (closer reports say Newport Beach, California) [10] with his wife and two children, Jonathan (b. 1997) and Leila (b. 2001).

Notes

  1. ^ Observer Klinsmann: The rise... and the falls. Accessed 4 January 2007.
  2. ^ Klinsmann quits due to 'burned out' feeling. (11 July 2006). CBS SportsLine.com wire reports. Retrieved on July 12 2006.
  3. ^ Shock for Germany - Klinsmann quits as German coach. (July 12 2006). Spiegel Online. Retrieved on July 12 2006.
  4. ^ Klinsmann quits as Germany coach. (July 12 2006). BBC Sport - World Cup 2006. Retrieved on July 16 2006.
  5. ^ The Sun Online Chelsea target Jurgen as boss. Accessed 15 April 2007.
  6. ^ Jurgen in final Blues rejection (2007, April 26)
  7. ^ La Opinion Digital Galaxy target Klinsmann (in Spanish). Accessed August 25, 2007.
  8. ^ "England role 'fascinates' Capello". BBC. 2007-11-23. Retrieved 2007-11-24.
  9. ^ "Jürgen Klinsmann to succeed Hitzfeld at Bayern". FC Bayern homepage. 2008-01-11. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
  10. ^ Reid, S. (2006, June 30). Klinsmania rules Germany - The German coach, who lives in Newport Beach, has his native country smiling. Orange County Register. Retrieved on July 21, 2006. The Orange County Register is the local newspaper for both the Huntington Beach and Newport Beach--both located in Orange County, California--and may therefore be more knowledgeable about Klinsmann's precise residence than other reports.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jürgen Klinsmann.


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