Oliver Kahn

Oliver Kahn

Personal information
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team	Bayern Munich
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 10 May2006

Oliver Kahn (born 15 June, 1969 in Karlsruhe, Germany) is a German football goalkeeper. He plays for the German national team (since 1995) and Bayern München (since 1994). He is known as King Kahn or Kahn, the Titan for his prowess in the game.

Career

Kahn began his football odyssey in 1976, in his native town, Karlsruhe. A year later, he was playing for Karlsruher SC's youth team. He worked his way up through the youth teams but never quite made it into the international youth set-up. He subsequently made his Bundesliga debut in the autumn of 1990 and left an indelible stain from the outset. It took him only three seasons to establish himself as one of the best last lines of defence in the Bundesliga and his excellent displays were rewarded with a call-up to the national team in October 1993. He was drafted into the German squad at the

as reserve keeper to Bodo Illgner, but never made the starting line-up.

He was signed by Bayern Munich at the beginning of the 1994/95 season, and has gone on to win many honors, both at domestic and international level. The 2.5 million euros paid by the Bavarian club was a record fee for a goalkeeper at the time, and from the very beginning Kahn was made Bayern's first-choice. Although suffering a rupture of his cruciate ligament in the next season, he developed into a most formidable goalkeeper.

His international debut came in a match against Switzerland on June 23, 1995. He had to still make do with being the reserve keeper at (edit conflict × 96) in England. At the

in France he had to play second fiddle for the third successive major international tournament. It was not until Andreas Köpke announced his retirement at the end of the tournament that Oliver Kahn was finally given his chance as Germany's undisputed number one. In 2002, he won the adidas Golden Ball for best player and the Yashin Award for top goalkeeper of the

, after allowing only two of the seven national sides to score against him: the Republic of Ireland and the ultimate champions Brazil. Despite being beaten only three times overall, he was widely blamed for losing the final after allowing Brazilian striker Ronaldo to score the first goal. He also starred for his country at Template:Ec2 and Template:Ec2.

Family

Kahn and his wife Simone - with whom he has two children - split in 2003 after he was romantically linked to former barmaid Verena Kerth. The affair with Kerth was widely publicised in German tabloids when Kahn decided to leave his wife for Kerth while Simone was in the eighth month of her second pregnancy and was forced to hide from the press in a private hospital near Munich. Kahn and Kerth have been in a relationship since then.

Player profile

Kahn is a player obsessed by perfection, and trains fanatically. He is hyper-competitive and always demands 100% from himself and his teammates. On the pitch, he is a charismatic, dominant presence who leads his defense and intimidates the opposition. His reflexes are stellar, his control of the box is excellent, and he excels in one-on-one situations. Because of his seemingly overambitious attitude in the field he is made fun of sometimes in Germany by some comedians, portraying him as a maniac gone wild.

However, due to his increasing age and personal problems, his game has gradually declined. He hit a nadir when he allowed a seemingly easy-to-save goal against Real Madrid in the 2004 Champions League season, resulting in his team being eliminated from the competition. Since then, he has been unable to regain his former status as an undisputed world class keeper. He lost his status as the first choice goalie for the German national team (with team manager Jürgen Klinsmann rotating the number one spot between Kahn and his longtime archrival Jens Lehmann of Arsenal F.C.). Kahn's hopes of playing the 2006 World Cup were crushed on April 7, 2006, when Klinsmann announced his decision to assign Lehmann for the tournament starting in June. Kahn acted as a true sportsman and has since stated that he is going to continue his national team career, despite being demoted to number two, and support the team at the World Cup.

Honors

Club Titles

• Bundesliga: 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006
• German Cup: 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006
• German Super Cup: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003

• UEFA Cup: 1996
• UEFA Champions League: 2001
• Intercontinental Cup: 2001

National Team

• European Championship: 1996
• World Cup runner-up: 2002

Personal Honors

• Man of the match: for his fabulous performance in the Champions League Final, 2001
• The World's best Goalkeeper: 1999, 2001, 2002
• Best European Goalkeeper: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
• German Footballer of the Year: 2000, 2001
• Best Bundesliga Keeper: 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001
• Golden Ball (Best World Cup Player): 2002
• Best goalkeeper of the World Cup: 2002
• UEFA Fair-Play Award: 2001

Ridicule

In 1996, popular German comedian Harald Schmidt lip-synced Kahn, when he angrily shouted at colleague Andreas Herzog, by using ape noises ("Uh-uh-uh'). This became of cult fame, and from that moment on, fans of the opposing team would taunt him by making ape noises and throwing bananas at him. But since his stellar performance in the 2002 World Cup, this has mostly ceased. After the 2002 World Cup the German band "Die Prinzen" sang a song about him "Olli Kahn".

Trivia

Kahn maintains strict control over his image, therefore, he does not allow his name to be used in some football simulation games such as Football Manager, where he instead appears as Jens Mustermann (Mustermann being the fictitious name used in sample IDs and passports, Jens as provocation, because it is the first name of his biggest rival, Jens Lehmann).

He is also an avid golfer, taking part in golf tournaments during his spare time.

External links

• FootballDatabase provides Oliver Kahn's profile and stats
• Autograph Oliver Kahn