Jürgen Klinsmann (German pronunciation: ['j????? 'kli:ns?man], born 30 July 1964) is a German football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of the United States national team. As a player, Klinsmann played for several prominent clubs in Europe and was part of the West German team that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the unified German team that won the 1996 UEFA European Championship. One of Germany's premier strikers during the 1990s, he scored in all six major international tournaments he participated in, from Euro 1988 to 1998 World Cup. In 1995, he came in third in the FIFA World Player of the Year award; in 2004 he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the "125 Greatest Living Footballers".
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, 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. On 29 July 2011, the U.S. Soccer Federation named Klinsmann the coach of the United States men's national team. 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.
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.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Club career
1972-1981: Youth career
Klinsmann is one of four sons of master baker Siegfried Klinsmann (died 2005) and his wife Martha. At age eight he started playing for TB Gingen, an amateur football club in Gingen an der Fils. Six months later he scored 16 goals in a single game for his new club. 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 that he would first finish his apprenticeship as a baker in their family business, which he completed in 1982.
1981-1989: Stuttgarter Kickers and VfB Stuttgart
Klinsmann started his professional career in 1982 at the then second division side Stuttgarter Kickers, where he had been playing since 1978 as a youth player. By 1982-83 he was already a regular starter and by the end of the 1983-84 season had scored a total of 19 goals for his club. Horst Buhtz, a former coach of Stuttgarter Kickers, recalls that Klinsmann benefited from an intensive sprint-training from Horst Allman, who was one of the best sprint coaches in Germany at that time. At the beginning of the new season, he managed to improve his 100 m dash from 11.7 to 11.0 seconds.
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 couldn't 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 game. In the 1987-88 season, he scored 19 goals - including a legendary overhead kick against Bayern Munich - 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
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 that this would be his last season at the San Siro.
1992-1994: AS Monaco
After UEFA Euro 1992, Klinsmann moved to AS Monaco and catapulted the club to a second-place finish in the league in his first season. After the bribery scandal by Olympique Marseille and their subsequent disqualification as league winners, AS Monaco was to replace them in the Champions League the following year. Monaco reached the semi-final before finally losing to eventual winners Milan. The following season, Monaco only managed a 9th-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.
1994-1995: Tottenham Hotspur
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 knocked England out of the World Cup, and partly because of his reputation as a diver. He was signed by Spurs in July 1994 from AS Monaco for £2million. 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. A Guardian journalist that 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.
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. He now holds legendary status at Spurs and was inducted into Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.
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.
1995-2003: Final years
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 games during the competition (a record that stood until 2011). 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 He played the last game of his high-level club career in 1998 on the final day of the Premier League against Southampton.
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.
Usa Coach Soccer Video
International career
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 Miroslav Klose's record of 71 goals for the national team Gerd Müller's 68 goals, and Podolski's 48. He scored 11 goals in the FIFA World Cup, ranking sixth all-time.
In 1987, he 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 European Championships, reaching the final in 1992 and becoming champion in 1996. Klinsmann was the first player ever to score in three different UEFA European Championships. Four other players - Vladimír ?micer, Thierry Henry, Nuno Gomes, and Cristiano Ronaldo - have equalled this record since.
He 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. The next day, the 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." 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.
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. He 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).
Coaching career
Germany
On 26 July 2004, he returned to Germany as the new head 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 7 April 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.
In the 2006 World Cup, the performances of Klinsmann's team silenced his critics, which included the form of an English song: Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Jurgen Klinsmann?. The team recorded three straight wins against Costa Rica, Poland and Ecuador in the first round, earning Germany 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 after 120 minutes after an equalising goal from Miroslav Klose in the 80th minute.
In the semi-final on 4 July, 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.
Despite the highly acclaimed performance at the World Cup and the praise earned, Klinsmann declined to renew his contract, informing the DFB of his decision on 11 July 2006. The decision was officially announced by the DFB on 12 July 2006. Klinsmann's assistant Joachim Löw was appointed as the new head trainer at the same press conference. Klinsmann said "My big wish is to go back to my family, to go back to leading a normal life with them ... 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."
Bayern Munich
In July 2008 Klinsmann took over as coach of Bayern Munich, succeeding Ottmar Hitzfeld. Klinsmann helped design a new player development and performance center for Bayern and then launched into molding the team for the Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League campaigns. Under his guidance, Bayern reached the quarter final of the Champions League, losing to eventual champion FC Barcelona. Klinsmann was sacked on 27 April 2009 with five matches remaining. His final match was a 1-0 loss to FC Schalke 04. Bayern were in third-place at the time of the sacking. Klinsmann finished with a record of 25 wins, nine draws, and 10 losses in all competitions.
Following Klinsmann's time with Bayern, team captain Phillip Lahm wrote in his autobiography that Klinsmann's time with the club was a "failure" and that Klinsmann's lack of tactical instruction required the players to meet before kickoff to discuss strategy.
Toronto FC
In November 2010, Klinsmann was hired as a technical consultant for Major League Soccer club Toronto FC to advise on an overhaul of the club's coaching and playing personnel, leading the club to hire Aron Winter as head coach and Paul Mariner as technical director the following year. Both Winter and Mariner would later be fired by the club during a last place finish in the 2012 season.
United States
On 29 July 2011, Klinsmann was named head coach of the United States men's national soccer team, making him the 35th coach in the history of the program.
The U.S. struggled in friendly games early in Klinsmann's tenure, losing four games and drawing one before ending the 2011 season with a victory over Slovenia. On 29 February 2012, the U.S. national team began their turnaround by recording a historic 1-0 victory in a friendly match away against Italy. It was their first win against the four-time FIFA World Cup champion dating back to 1934. On 15 August 2012, Klinsmann coached the United States to a historic 1-0 win against long time rivals Mexico in a friendly held at the Estadio Azteca, giving the U.S. their first ever victory over Mexico in the stadium. In 2012 Klinsmann coached the United States to their best winning percentage in a calendar year in history.
In 2013, Klinsmann coached the U.S. team in Estadio Azteca in the third World Cup qualifying game of the 2013 CONCACAF Hexagonal, where the United States earned their second point in history with a scoreless draw against Mexico despite losing the opening match of the Hex 2-1 to Honduras. On 2 June 2013, the United States played their centennial celebratory game against Klinsmann's homeland of Germany, where Klinsmann coached them to a 4-3 win. On 28 July, Klinsmann coached the U.S. team to their fifth CONCACAF Gold Cup, defeating Panama 1-0 in the final. On 10 September 2013, following a 2-0 win over Mexico, the United States secured qualification for the 2014 World Cup, held in Brazil. On 12 December 2013, Klinsmann signed a new contract extension with the United States Soccer Federation him with the national team until 2018.
2014 World Cup
Klinsmann received criticism in May 2014 when he left Landon Donovan off the final roster for the 2014 World Cup following the team's preliminary training camp. Klinsmann described it as "the most difficult decision of [his] coaching career" but that he sees other players "slightly ahead of [Donovan]." Klinsmann faced further controversy after his son Jonathan posted a comment on Twitter ridiculing Donovan, causing some to speculate that the decision was influenced by personal animosity between Klinsmann and Donovan.
On 16 June, Klinsmann guided the United States to a 2-1 win over Ghana in their first match of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, behind an early strike from captain Clint Dempsey and a dramatic 86th-minute header from substitute John Brooks. On 22 June, his side drew 2-2 against Portugal in the second group match. A defensive miscue early in the game led to an easy Portugal goal. But Jermaine Jones equalized with a strike from 30 yards out in the second half. Then, in the 81st minute Dempsey scored to give the USA a 2-1 lead. The score remained 2-1 until the final seconds of stoppage time where Cristiano Ronaldo sent a cross in that was headed past U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard by Silvestre Varela. On 26 June, the USA faced the German squad. With possible elimination looming again as their Round of 16 spot hung in the balance, the USA fell to the Germans, 1-0, but the hope of surviving the Group of Death remained alive in the Portugal-Ghana game in which Portugal defeated Ghana, 2-1, sending the USA and Klinsmann to the Round of 16.
Klinsmann and the USA drew Belgium in the round of 16. After spending much of the game absorbing Belgium's potent attack, with goalkeeper Tim Howard setting a World Cup finals record for saves in a match, the U.S. survived with a 0-0 score after 90 minutes, sending the game to extra time. After quickly falling behind 2-0 to Belgium in extra time, the U.S. cut the deficit in half in the 107th minute when substitute Julian Green volleyed in a lobbed through ball from Michael Bradley, but were unable to score a second and were eliminated.
2018 World Cup qualification
The U.S. notched a 1-0 win over Czech Republic to open the new 2018 World Cup cycle on 3 September, their first ever win over the Czechs. On 5 June 2015, Klinsmann guided the U.S. to a dramatic 4-3 win over the Oranje in a friendly in Amsterdam and another friendly victory over Germany five days later.
The United States men's national team entered the final stage of the 2018 World Cup qualifying cycle, known as the "Hexagonal", in November 2016 having recorded twelve wins, four losses, and one draw up to that point in the year. Klinsmann brought in emerging young players such as Christian Pulisic, a teenager who had earned his way into Borussia Dortmund's starting lineup, Jordan Morris, 2016 MLS Rookie of the Year, and Gyasi Zardes, a forward for the Los Angeles Galaxy. The United States men's national team opened the hexagonal with a 2-1 defeat to Mexico and a 4-0 loss to Costa Rica.
Following the defeats, U.S. Soccer Federation officials removed Klinsmann as the U.S. men's national team manager on 21 November 2016, replacing him with Bruce Arena, who had previously coached the team from 1998 to 2006.
Overview
Club
International
In 1995 Klinsmann and some of his close friends founded the children charity foundation "Agapedia" which stems from the Greek language and translates to "Love for Children". In 1997 Klinsmann, acting as the captain of the German National Team, visited the Holocaust memorial place Yad Vashem in Israel alongside his coach Berti Vogts. This visit was televised around the globe and drew worldwide attention. Klinsmann is also a board member of the German Initiative "Für die Zukunft lernen" which means "Learning for the future" and supports the education of young people about the Holocaust. In May 1999, Klinsmann donated all the proceeds from his farewell game (more than $1 million) to different children charity organizations. The game was a sell-out with 54,000 fans in Stuttgart's Mercedes-Benz Arena. Famous personalities such as Bryan Adams, Boris Becker and many others contributed to this event.
Personal life
Klinsmann was born in Göppingen. His family moved to Stuttgart when he was a teenager. 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 journeyman baker, having served an apprenticeship. He is married to Debbie Chin, an American former model, and lives in Huntington Beach, California. Klinsmann and his wife have two children, Jonathan and Laila. Son Jonathan, a goalkeeper, has been capped at age group level for the United States U-20 team. Aside from German, Klinsmann is fluent in English, Italian and French, and is a certified commercial helicopter pilot.
Career statistics
Club
International
Managerial
Honours
Player
Club
- Supercoppa Italiana: 1989
- UEFA Cup: 1990-91
- UEFA Cup: 1995-96
- Bundesliga: 1996-97
International
- FIFA World Cup: 1990
- UEFA European Championship: 1996; Runner-up 1992
- Summer Olympic Games: Bronze medal 1988
- U.S. Cup: 1993
Individual
- Bundesliga Top Goalscorer: 1987-88
- West German Footballer of the Year: 1988
- Bravo Otto - Silver award: 1988, 1990
- FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1990
- German Footballer of the Year: 1994
- Premier League Player of the Month: August 1994
- Tottenham Hotspur Club Player of the Year: 1994
- FWA Footballer of the Year: 1994-95 (Tottenham Hotspur)
- PFA Team of the Year: 1994-95
- ESM Team of the Year: 1994-95
- IFFHS World's Top Goal Scorer of the Year: 1995
- Ballon d'Or (Runner-up): 1995
- FIFA World Player of the Year (Bronze award): 1995
- UEFA Cup Top Scorer: 1995-96
- FIFA XI: 1996, 1999
- FIFA 100
Manager
International
- FIFA World Cup: 3rd place 2006
- FIFA Confederations Cup: 3rd place 2005
- CONCACAF Gold Cup: 2013
Individual
- German Football Manager of the Year: 2006
- CONCACAF Coach of the Year: 2013
Literature
- Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling: Strategen des Spiels - Die legendären Fußballtrainer, Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89533-475-8, S. 332ff.
- Jens Mende: Jürgen Klinsmann - Wie wir Weltmeister werden, Südwest-Verlag, München 2006, ISBN 3-517-08208-2.
- Michael Horeni: Klinsmann. Stürmer Trainer Weltmeister. Scherz, Frankfurt/Main 2005, ISBN 3-502-15045-1.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
EmoticonEmoticon