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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 West German national 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,
a much better result than the general expectations, including those from Germany's
own fans.
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.
 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
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.
National team playing career
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Olympic medal record
Competitor for West Germany
Men's Football
Bronze 1988 Seoul Team Competition
Klinsmann had a fruitful international career, seeing his first Germany duty in
1987 and in the end 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 3 goals), 1994 (5 goals), and 1998 (3 goals), winning the World
Cup in 1990. He was the first player ever to score at least 3 goals in each of 3
World Cups, later joined by Ronaldo of Brazil. He still remains second all time in
World Cup goals scored by a German with 11.
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.
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.
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 the 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 for 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 satisfactory performance at the World Cup and the praise earned,
Klinsmann declined to renew his contract, informing the DFB of his decision on July
11, 2006. The decision was officially announced by the DFB on the 12th of July
2006. Klinsmann's assistant Joachim Löw was appointed as the new head trainer at
the same press conference. Said Klinsmann, who is based in California, "My big wish
is to go back to my family, to go back to leading a normal life with them." He
continued "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."
Coaching after the 2006 World Cup
Klinsmann was also linked repeatedly with the vacant United States coaching job
after the decision not to renew the contract of Bruce Arena after the 2006 World
Cup.
On April 14, 2007 The Sun reported, Roman Abramovich wants Klinsmann to coach his
team Chelsea F.C. Klinsmann reportedly rejected the offer.
Honours
Club
playing career
UEFA Cup 1991 (with Inter Milan), 1996 (with Bayern Munich)
German Footballer of the Year 1988 and 1994
English Footballer of the Year 1995
Bundesliga Championship 1997
International career
1988 Olympic Games Bronze medal
1990 FIFA World Cup winner
1996 European Football Championship winner
Other
Named to the FIFA 100, Pelé's list of the 125 greatest living players announced as
a part of FIFA's centenary celebration in March 2004.
Personal
life
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) with
his wife and two children, Jonathan (b. 1997) and Leila (b. 2001).
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Klinsmann - Reflector - Biography
