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Lukas Podolski

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Lukas Podolski
File:Lukas Podolski (Confed-Cup 2005).JPG
Personal information
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Forward
Team information
Current team
 FC Bayern Munich
Number 11
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of May 27 2008

Lukas Podolski (German, IPA: [ˈlukas poˈdolski]) (born as Łukasz Podolski on June 4, 1985 in Gliwice, Upper Silesia, Poland) nicknamed (Prinz) Poldi, is a German footballer who plays as a striker for Bayern Munich and is a member of the German national football team.

Early career

Podolski was born to Christina and Waldemar Podolski, former Polish football professional[citation needed], in the industrial town of Gliwice, Poland. Podolski grew up in Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, and later in Pulheim, both near Cologne.[1]

He began playing football at the age of six in the youth team of FC Bergheim, where he played until he joined Cologne in 1995. It was there where Podolski's talents were first noticed. In 2003, at the age of 18, Podolski was still part of the club's youth side. At this time the club found itself in dire straits battling to avoid relegation from the Bundesliga. First team boss Marcel Koller, working on a shoestring budget, invited Podolski to train with the senior players and he made his top flight debut shortly afterwards on November 22, 2003. Even though Cologne failed to avoid a drop to the 2nd division, Podolski had shown what he could do, scoring 10 goals in his first 19 senior appearances. This was the best tally by an 18 year old in the history of the Bundesliga.

Though his call up to the German Euro 2004 squad brought along interest from several top clubs, Podolski stayed at Köln to help the club gain promotion in the 2004-05 season. With 24 goals, Podolski advanced to become the league's best scorer. Somewhat unusually, Podolski remained part of the Germany squad, even though he did not play in the national top tier league.

After Köln were promoted, the pressure was on Podolski to keep the club in the Bundesliga practically singlehandedly. Podolski managed to score 12 goals in the 2005-06 season, but eventually, Köln were relegated again. It became clear that Podolski would not stay again to push them through the 2006-07 season - even more so, as Podolski was becoming an integral part of the national team.

Bayern Munich

Jürgen Klinsmann, the former coach of Germany, held Podolski in high regard as he is an effective scorer with both his head and feet. Because of this, clubs such as Bayern Munich, Hamburg, Werder Bremen and even Real Madrid manifested their interest in Podolski, even though he had a contract with FC Köln through 2007. On June 1, 2006, Podolski announced that a transfer agreement had been reached with Bayern Munich, allowing him to join the Bavarian side for the 2006-07 season. Financial details of the deal were not immediately available, but the transfer fee was speculated to be around €10 million. He made his Bundesliga debut for Bayern on August 11, 2006 with a 2:0 victory against Borussia Dortmund, coming on as a substitute in the 88th minute. On September 9, 2006, he came on as a second half substitute in a DFB cup game versus FC St Pauli. Only 26 seconds after the second half started, he scored the equaliser, evening the match 1:1. On October 14, 2006, with his first Bundesliga goal for Bayern, Podolski helped to secure the club's 4-2 win over Hertha Berlin. On October 26, 2006, Podolski suffered a serious injury to his right ankle joint caused by teammate, Mark van Bommel, during a training session. Consequently, Podolski missed more than five matchweeks. He returned from this injury and scored against Alemannia Aachen.

National team

In late 2003 after couple of impressive performances in his first few Bundesliga games, Polish media suggested then-Polish national team coach Paweł Janas to check Podolski out, as he was still eligible to play for Poland. Janas ignored the request stating in one of the press interviews that "as for today we have much better strikers in Poland and I don't see a reason to call up a player just because he played one or two good matches in the Bundesliga. He's not even a regular starter at his club." By that time Podolski was still interested in representing Poland, but as the season progressed more and more German media started to suggest to call up the striker to their national team. When his full potential was finally unveiled, he had already been persuaded to represent Germany. At the end of the season Cologne were relegated, but Podolski impressed so much, that he celebrated his debut for Rudi Völler's Germany on 6 June, 2004 in Kaiserslautern against Hungary with a late substitute appearance. He had become the first second-division player since 1975 to break into the national team.

Podolski played for Germany at Euro 2004, where he was the squad's youngest player. He also attended the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2005 and scored 3 goals there.

World Cup 2006

Podolski was selected in the Germany squad for the 2006 World Cup, where he partnered Miroslav Klose in attack. He scored his first ever World Cup goal in Germany's 3rd group match against Ecuador, and both goals in the 2-0 win over Sweden in the round of 16. By this, he became the first player since 1962 to score two goals in the first 12 minutes of a World Cup match and only the third man ever to accomplish the feat. During the World Cup, Lukas Podolski and his German squad went to the semi-finals and lost to Italy 2-0 in extra time. And, eventually won the third place match against Portugal. His three goals in the tournament tied him for second in the Golden Boot competition, which was won by his teammate Miroslav Klose with 5 goals. Podolski was tied with Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Fernando Torres, David Villa, Maxi Rodriguez, Hernán Crespo, and FIFA World Cup MVP (winner of the Golden Ball) Zinedine Zidane. Podolski was named the World Cup's Best Young Player for his performance in the tournament.

On September 6, 2006, Podolski netted 4 goals in a Euro 2008 qualifying game against San Marino, which made him only third German after Gerd Müller and Michael Ballack to score 4 goals in an international match. The final score of the match in Serravalle was 0-13. In Germany's 4-1 win against Slovakia in Bratislava on October 11, 2006, he scored the first and the last German goal, both on assists by Miroslav Klose. He has continued to score goals at an astonishing rate. On the November 17, 2007 in a Euro qualifier match against Cyprus, Podolski was involved in every goal in Germany's 4-0 victory. This was one of Podolski's best performances for the German national team even though he played out of his natural position, playing at left midfield, he netted one goal himself and was voted Man of the Match.

Euro 2008

On Sunday June 8 2008, Podolski made his Euro 2008 bow against debutants Poland in a Group B match in Klagenfurt, Austria. He scored both goals in a 2-0 victory but missed a golden opportunity to complete his hattrick in the 88th minute. Due to the fact that Podolski was born in Poland, he did not celebrate his two goals, instead placing his hand on his chest in a sign of relief. Interestingly, fellow Polish-born German International Miroslav Klose was the one to provide both assists.

International Goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 21 December, 2004 Thailand, Thailand  Thailand 5-1 5-1 Friendly
2. 5 March, 2005 Ljubljana, Slovenia  Slovenia 1-0 1-0 Friendly
3. 4 June, 2005 Belfast, Northern Ireland  Northern Ireland 4-1 4-1 Friendly
4. 15 June, 2005 Frankfurt, Germany  Australia 4-1 4-2 FIFA Confederations Cup
5. 25 June, 2005 Nuremberg, Germany  Brazil 1-1 2-3 FIFA Confederations Cup
6. 29 June, 2005 Leipzig, Germany  Mexico 1-0 4-3 FIFA Confederations Cup
7. 7 September, 2005 Berlin, Germany  South Africa 1-0 4-2 Friendly
8. 7 September, 2005 Berlin, Germany  South Africa 3-1 4-2 Friendly
9. 7 September, 2005 Berlin, Germany  South Africa 4-2 4-2 Friendly
10. 27 May, 2006 Freiburg, Germany  Luxembourg 3-0 7-0 Friendly
11. 27 May, 2006 Freiburg, Germany  Luxembourg 5-0 7-0 Friendly
12. 20 June, 2006 Berlin, Germany  Ecuador 3-0 3-0 FIFA World Cup 2006
13. 24 June, 2006 Munich, Germany  Sweden 1-0 2-0 FIFA World Cup 2006
14. 24 June, 2006 Munich, Germany  Sweden 2-0 2-0 FIFA World Cup 2006
15. 12 September, 2007 Dortmund, Germany  Romania 3-0 3-0 Friendly
16. 8 June, 2008 Klagenfurt, Austria  Poland 1-0 2-0 Euro 2008
17. 8 June, 2008 Klagenfurt, Austria  Poland 2-0 2-0 Euro 2008

Honours

On July 6, 2006, Podolski was announced as the first Gillette Best Young Player for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Club Titles


National Team

Club career stats

All-Time Club Performance
Club Season Bundesliga DFB Cup European Competition Total
App Goals App Goals App Goals App Goals
Köln 2003-04 19 10 1 0 - - 20 10
2004-05* 30 24 2 5 - - 32 29
2005-06 32 12 1 0 - - 33 12
Total 81 46 4 5 - - 85 51
Bayern Munich 2006-07 22 4 3 2 7 1 32 7
2007-08 24 5 4 0 12 5 40 10
Total 46 9 7 2 19 6 72 17
Career Totals 127 55 11 7 19 6 157 68

*Played in Second Bundesliga.

References

  1. ^ "M 02.11 Lukas Podolski" (in German). www.bpb.de. Retrieved 2007-10-17.

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