By David Lee Wheatley
German striker Jurgen Klinsmann was born in Goppingen,
Germany, on 30th July 1964. His family moved to Stuttgart when he
was 14 after his father bought a bakery in the state capital. Klinsmann played
for youth club SC Geislingen before signing for Stuttgart Kickers at 16 and he
first completed his apprenticeship at the bakery at his parents’ behest before
he signed pro forms with Kickers aged 18.
Stuttgart Kickers were playing in the second division
when Klinsmann managed to become a regular starter in the 1982-83 season. The
following term saw a return of 19 goals from the pacy forward and in 1984 he
moved to top-flight local rivals VfB Stuttgart.
In his first season at his new club he was joint top
scorer, but the team could only manage a disappointing tenth place finish.
Better was to come, though, when in 1986 Klinsmann helped his club to the
German League Cup final in which they were defeated 5-2 by Bayern Munich and
the following season he got his first international cap for West Germany versus
Brazil in a 1-1 draw, while topping the Bundesliga scoring charts with 19
goals.
The 24-year-old was named German Footballer of the
Year in 1988 to go with his top goal-scorer accolade. He was getting noticed on
a wider scale by clubs abroad by that time and this was reinforced by Stuttgart’s
run to the UEFA Cup final of 1989, which they narrowly lost to Maradona’s
Napoli by a 5-4 aggregate score.
The European stage he played on in the UEFA final led
to a big move to Internazionale, where he joined up with fellow West German
internationals Matthaus and Brehme. The glamour of Serie A was attractive to
many top players at the time, but it was a harsh place for strikers thanks to
the highly defensive tactics employed in the Italian leagues during that period.
Despite all that, the striker managed to bag 13 goals in his opening campaign
at Guiseppe Meazza. He quickly integrated himself in the Italian way of life by
learning the language and that allowed him to settle swiftly in Milan.
His first season went reasonably well for the team as
they finished in third place under Giovanni Trapattoni and then West Germany
called Klinsmann up to the national squad for the 1990 World Cup. He scored
three goals during Italia ’90 helping his country to go all the way in the
tournament to become World Champions, beating England in the semi-final and then
Argentina in the final. His performance in the 2nd round against the
Netherlands was praised greatly due to his strike partner Rudi Voller being
sent off; Klinsmann was left to plough a lone furrow up front, a job he did
magnificently to lead the team into the next round.
Klinsmann returned to Inter and won the 1991 UEFA Cup with
victory over fellow Italian side AS Roma, while the blonde marksman hit 14
goals in Serie A. Unfortunately, his time at Inter hit the buffers when they
placed eighth the following season under Corrado Orrico and the goals dried up
somewhat with a meagre return of just seven strikes. He lost his German
international starting spot for a short spell, before regaining it for the 1992
European Championships, which the unified Germany lost to shock victors
Denmark.
Due to the troublesome season Klinsmann had endured
with Inter, it became clear that it was time for him to move on. His next
destination was principality club AS Monaco in the French league, a move that
transformed the club into title contenders. Monaco came second in his first
season in Monte Carlo and owing to the scandal surrounding league winners Olympique
Marseille, Monaco were granted their place in the 1993-94 edition of the
Champions League.
It resulted in a gallant effort from Klinsmann and his
team-mates to reach the semi-finals of the competition only for the extremely
strong AC Milan to knock them out. Things went sour at Stade Louis II the
following year when they could only manage ninth place in Ligue 1. Klinsmann had
suffered two months out with a torn ligament and there were also rumblings that
he and his team-mates had fallen out during the course of the season. However,
thanks to his impressive performances in the USA World Cup of 1994, in which
Germany made the quarters, Klinsmann was voted Germany’s Footballer of the Year
for a second time.
He was looking for a way out from Monaco and in a
surprise move he joined English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur for a fee
of £2 million. The English public and media saw Klinsmann as a ‘diver’ who
cheats referees, so Klinsmann had his work cut out to get them on his side.
The prolific forward showed his sense of humour when
celebrating his first Spurs goal with a flying dive on to the turf. This act endeared
him to many football fans in the country, not least the White Hart Lane
faithful! Spurs reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1995, while the former Inter
poacher grabbed 29 goals in all competitions.
He went on to claim the 1995 Football Writers’ Association
Footballer of the Year award, voted on by the football journalists across the
country. Many of the writers that voted for him were the very same people that
had criticised the German’s playing style when he first arrived!
Klinsmann was on the move again in the summer of 1995
when he joined Bavarian giants Bayern Munich. It was a successful spell at
Germany’s biggest club, as they won the UEFA Cup in 1996 and the player himself
was top scorer at Bayern during his first two seasons at the Olympic Stadium.
It was back to international duty for the Euro ’96 finals
in England, a competition that Germany won handsomely, prompting the famous
scenes of Klinsmann and his team-mates singing the tournament anthem ‘Football’s
Coming Home’ in celebration. It was a massively important victory for the
German national side after the relative disappointment of Euro ’92 and the World
Cup in ’94.
The new club campaign at Bayern brought Klinsmann and
his club the Bundesliga title. He then chose to have another crack at Serie A
with Genoese club Sampdoria, but it didn’t go well and after six months he
returned to Spurs for a second stint at the club where he had made such an
impression in his single season in 94-95. His transfer in the winter of the
97-98 campaign found Tottenham struggling at the wrong end of the Premier League
table, but they managed to survive in the division due in part to a four-goal
haul from Klinsmann against Wimbledon in a 6-2 victory. He played the last game
of his club career on the final day of the 1997-98 season against Southampton.
Rounding off his playing career at the age of 33,
Klinsmann went with Germany to the 1998 World Cup in France as team captain.
The ageing star played well and managed three goals in the tournament, but it
was a feeling of overall disappointment for Berti Vogt’s side with elimination
coming at the quarter-final stage.
Jurgen Klinsmann finished his career with winner’s
medals at the World Cup, European Championships, in the UEFA Cup and
Bundesliga. He is still the third highest goalscorer for Germany at World Cup
finals behind only Miroslav Klose and Gerd Muller.
Perhaps just as great an achievement was his ability
to change people’s perception of him both in Italy and England particularly. I
remember him coming to play for Tottenham and he was demonised by the English press.
He was a diver, a cheat. But, when I saw him play in the flesh it was a different
story. What an incredible striker he was.
Follow me on Twitter:
No comments:
Post a Comment