Jürgen Klinsmann
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Klinsmann in 2014
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 30 July 1964 | ||
| Place of birth | Göppingen, West Germany | ||
| Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1972–1974 | TB Gingen | ||
| 1974–1978 | SC Geislingen | ||
| 1978–1981 | Stuttgarter Kickers | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1981–1984 | Stuttgarter Kickers | 61 | (22) |
| 1984–1989 | VfB Stuttgart | 156 | (79) |
| 1989–1992 | Inter Milan | 95 | (34) |
| 1992–1994 | AS Monaco | 65 | (29) |
| 1994–1995 | Tottenham Hotspur | 41 | (21) |
| 1995–1997 | Bayern Munich | 65 | (31) |
| 1997–1998 | Sampdoria | 8 | (2) |
| 1997–1998 | → Tottenham Hotspur (loan) | 15 | (9) |
| 2003 | Orange County Blue Star | 8 | (5) |
| Total | 514 | (232) | |
| National team | |||
| 1980–1981 | West Germany U16 | 3 | (0) |
| 1984–1985 | West Germany U21 | 8 | (3) |
| 1987–1988 | West Germany Olympic | 14 | (8) |
| 1987–1990 | West Germany | 26 | (7) |
| 1990–1998 | Germany | 82 | (40) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 2004–2006 | Germany | ||
| 2008–2009 | Bayern Munich | ||
| 2011–2016 | United States | ||
Honours[show]
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| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. | |||
Klinsmann managed the German national team to a third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup. On 12 July 2006, he 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 took over as coach of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich in July 2008 when Ottmar Hitzfeld stepped down. On 27 April 2009, he was released early,[2] even though he had won five of the previous seven league games and was only three points behind league leader VfL Wolfsburg. In the jointly initiated reforms at Bayern, it emerged there was a severe clash of opinions between coach and club management.[3] On 29 July 2011, the U.S. Soccer Federation named Klinsmann the coach of the United States men's national team.[4] In 2013 he won the CONCACAF Gold Cup with the United States and was named CONCACAF Coach of the Year 2013. He led the United States team to the last 16 of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.
On 3 November 2016, he became the fourth male and sixth person to become the German national football team squad's honorary captain.[5][6]
On 21 November 2016, Klinsmann was fired as head coach of the United States men's national soccer team, after losses to Mexico and Costa Rica in World Cup qualification.[7]
Contents
[hide]Club career[edit]
1972–1981: Youth career[edit]
Klinsmann is one of four sons of master baker Siegfried Klinsmann (died 2005) and his wife Martha. At age eight, he began playing for TB Gingen, an amateur football club in Gingen an der Fils. Six months later, he scored 16 goals in a single match for his new club.[8] At age ten, he moved to SC Geislingen. When he was 14 years old, his father bought a bakery in Stuttgart. After the family relocated to the state capital Stuttgart, Klinsmann continued to play for SC Geislingen, even after he was spotted in a youth selection of Württemberg. At age 16, he signed a contract with Stuttgarter Kickers, at which he would turn professional two years later. His parents decided he would first finish his apprenticeship as a baker in their family business, which he completed in 1982.[9]1981–1989: Stuttgarter Kickers and VfB Stuttgart[edit]
Klinsmann (centre) playing for VfB Stuttgart against Dynamo Dresden in the semi-final of the 1988–89 UEFA Cup.
In 1984, Klinsmann moved to first division rivals VfB Stuttgart. In his first season at the club, he scored 15 goals and was the team's joint top scorer with Karl Allgöwer. Despite his goal scoring efforts, he could not prevent his new club from finishing tenth in the league. During each of the 1985–86 and 1986–87 seasons, he scored 16 goals and reached the 1986 final of the DFB-Pokal, losing against Bayern Munich 2–5, but scoring the last goal of the match. In the 1987–88 season, he scored 19 goals – including a legendary overhead kick against Bayern – and was the Bundesliga's top goalscorer.
In 1988, the 24-year-old Klinsmann was named German Footballer of the Year. After reaching the 1988–89 UEFA Cup final with Stuttgart (which eventually lost to Diego Maradona's inspired Napoli 1–2 and 3–3), Klinsmann moved to Italian club Inter Milan and joined the ranks of two other German internationals, Lothar Matthäus and Andreas Brehme.
1989–1992: Inter Milan[edit]
Klinsmann signed a three-year contract with Inter. In spite of the heavily defensive orientated tactics of head coach Giovanni Trapattoni, Klinsmann scored 13 goals as the Nerazzurri finished third in Serie A. He became one of the most popular foreign players in Italy, mostly because he had learnt Italian and earned himself the respect of the fans with his appearance and language skills.During the next season, Klinsmann won the UEFA Cup with Inter (2–1 on aggregate against Roma) and repeated his previous performance in the league with 14 goals. Klinsmann's contract was extended until 1994. A disastrous 1991–92 season made all plans fall through. Inter never managed to gain any momentum under coach Corrado Orrico and finished eighth in the league, with Klinsmann only scoring seven goals and the team being divided and fragmented into groups. It was clear for Klinsmann this would be his last season at the San Siro.
1992–1994: AS Monaco[edit]
After UEFA Euro 1992, Klinsmann moved to Monaco and catapulted the club to a second-place finish in the league in his first season. After the bribery scandal by Marseille and their subsequent disqualification as league winners, Monaco was to replace them in the UEFA Champions League the following year. Monaco reached the semi-final before finally losing to eventual winners Milan. The following season, Monaco only managed a ninth-place finish in the league. Klinsmann, who had missed two months due to a torn ligament, was mostly deployed as a lone-striker and started criticizing the attitude of his teammates. In 1994, he left the club early, with one more year remaining on his contract.[12]1994–1995: Tottenham Hotspur[edit]
Somewhat surprisingly, Klinsmann moved to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League for the 1994–95 season, where the fans and media were very critical of the German, partly because he played in the 1990 West Germany team that eliminated England from the World Cup, and partly because of his reputation as a diver.[9] He was signed by Spurs in July 1994 from Monaco for £2 million.[13] On his debut against Sheffield Wednesday, he scored a header and immediately won over fans by self-deprecatingly diving to the ground as a celebration.[9][14] A Guardian journalist had written an article called "Why I Hate Jürgen Klinsmann", wrote another two months later called "Why I Love Jürgen Klinsmann".[15] Klinsmann went on to win the 1995 Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year.[16]Because of his humour, but also because of his athletic achievements and his combative playing style, Klinsmann quickly became extremely popular in England; over 150,000 of his shirts were sold.[17] He now holds legendary status at Spurs and was inducted into Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.[18]
Klinsmann scored 21 goals in the 1994–95 season for Spurs and a total of 30 in all competitions, including a late winner against Liverpool in the quarter-final of the FA Cup. He also found the net in the semi-final, but Spurs missed out on a place in the final by losing the game 4–1 to Everton.[19]
1995–2003: Final years[edit]
Klinsmann then had a successful spell at Bayern Munich during the 1995–96 and 1996–97 season. During both seasons, he was the top goalscorer of his club, won the 1995–96 UEFA Cup and set a new goalscoring record of 15 goals in 12 matches during the competition, a record that stood until 2011.[20] A year later, he also became German champion as he won the Bundesliga. He then briefly moved to Italy for Sampdoria, but left the team again in the winter and returned to Tottenham Hotspur. During his second stint at Tottenham in the 1997–98 season, his goals saved the club from relegation, particularly the four goals he scored in a 6–2 win at Wimbledon.[21] He played the last match of his high-level club career in 1998 on the final day of the Premier League against Southampton.[22]After retiring and moving to the United States, in 2003 Klinsmann played for fun for Orange County Blue Star, an amateur team in the fourth-tier Premier Development League.[9]
International career[edit]
Klinsmann had a good international career, seeing his first West Germany duty in 1987 and ultimately collecting 108 caps, making him the country's fourth-most capped player behind Lothar Matthäus, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski. Klinsmann scored 47 goals for West Germany/Germany in top-level international matches, sharing the all-time fourth place with Rudi Völler, and only surpassed by Klose's record of 71 goals for the national team, Gerd Müller's 68 goals and Podolski's 48. Klinsmann scored 11 goals in the FIFA World Cup, ranking sixth all-time.In 1987, Klinsmann made his debut for Germany against Brazil in a 1–1 draw. He participated in the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal; the 1988, 1992 and 1996 UEFA European Championships, reaching the final in 1992 and becoming champion in 1996. Klinsmann was the first player ever to score in three different European Championships. Four other players – Vladimír Šmicer, Thierry Henry, Nuno Gomes and Cristiano Ronaldo – have since equalled this record.
Klinsmann was an important part of the West German team during the 1990 FIFA World Cup. After qualifying for the round of 16, Germany was to play the Netherlands, against which they lost two years earlier in Euro 88. It was to be Klinsmann's best international game. After Rudi Völler was sent off in the 22nd minute, Klinsmann was forced to play as a lone striker. He delivered a running and pressure performance with which he occupied the entire Dutch defence, scored the 1–0 opener and was a constant threat.[citation needed] The next day, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote the following about Klinsmann: "In the last decade, not a single forward of a DFB team has offered such a brilliant, almost perfect performance."[citation needed] After further victories over Czechoslovakia (1–0) and England (1–1 after extra time, 4–3 on penalties), he became a world champion after beating Argentina 1–0 in the final. Klinsmann is remembered for being fouled by the Argentinian Pedro Monzón, who was subsequently sent off, reducing Argentina to ten men. Many critics called the incident a prime example of Klinsmann's diving, a claim he contradicted. In an interview in 2004, he noted that the foul left a 15-cm gash on his shin.[23]
Klinsmann also competed for the unified Germany team at the 1994 (five goals), and 1998 (three goals), World Cups. He became the first player to score at least three goals in three consecutive World Cups, later joined by Ronaldo of Brazil and compatriot Miroslav Klose. Klinsmann is currently the sixth-highest goalscorer at World Cups overall and the third-highest goalscorer for Germany in this competition, behind Klose (16 goals) and Gerd Müller (14).
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