He was known as Golden Bomber, a very sharp German striker. What are his achievements as a player and after retired?
Jürgen Klinsmann usually called as Klinsi was born on July 30 1964 in Göppingen, Germany. With his blonde hair and scoring ability he was also known as “Golden Bomber”. He was one of the most succesful striker during the 90s. As a Germany national team player he won 1990 FIFA World Cup.
Klinsmann started to play football at the age of eight, he learned many positions in his youth, including goalkeeper. He started his professional career at the age of seventeen for 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 also played in many countries around Europe such as at AS Monaco (French Ligue 1), Internazionale and Sampdoria ( Italy Serie A), and Tottenham Hotspur in (England Premier Division). During this time he was under the tutelage of such coaches as Arsène Wenger and Giovanni Trapattoni, among others.
At Spurs he was known for his diving goal celebration, by “diving” onto the pitch on his front. Because of that, fans of other teams called him the “Submarine Commander” because of his alleged tendency to “Dive! Dive! Dive!” when challenged. This goal celebration is known in England as “doing a Klinsmann”. During his second season at Spurs, Klinsmann decided to retire from playing professional football in the summer of 1998 after the World Cup.
Under the pseudonym Jay Goppingen, Klinsmann returned to active play 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.
As a club player Klinsmann already won Bundesliga Championship 1997, and UEFA Cup in 1991 (with Inter Milan) and 1996 (with Bayern Munich). He became German Footballer of the Year in 1994 and 1998 and English Footballer of the Year in 1995.
Klinsmann also had a good 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 take an important part of the German team in the World Cups 1990. He scored 3 goals in World Cup 1990 and brought Germany to became a champion. He also scored 5 goals in World Cup 1994, and 3 goals in World Cup1998. He was the first player ever to score at least 3 goals in each of three World Cups, later joined by Ronaldo of Brazil.
In March 2004, he was named to the FIFA 100, Pelé’s list of the 125 greatest living players announced as a part of FIFA’s centenary celebration.
After 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 to replace his ex teammate Rudi Völler as a national coach. Together with his fellow German striker Oliver Bierhoff as team public relation, Klismann brought Germany to new era of football. 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.
Despite all of those critics, 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 own fans.
On 12th July 2006 Klinsmann officially announced that he would step down as Germany’s coach after two years in charge and been replaced by assistant coach Joachim Löw. 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.”
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 trained baker. 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).