Kevin Kuranyi

Kevin Dennis Kurányi (born March 2, 1982 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Germany football (soccer) player who currently plays for the German Bundesliga team Schalke 04. He is a striker who possesses aerial ability and finishing skills.

He was born to a Germans-Hungary father and a Panamanian mother. He eventually opted to play for the German national football team after being qualified to play for Brazil national football team, Hungary national football team and Panama national football team.

Career

Club career

Kuranyi started his career in 1988, for Petrópolis-based Serrano Football Club in Brazil, when he was six years old. In 1993 he transferred to Panamanian club Las Promesas, where he played for only one year before going back to Serrano FC. Kuranyi returned to Las Promesas in 1996 for another year. In 1997 he moved to Germany, enlisting at VfB Stuttgart's B youth team. After playing a few games in the Germany national under-21 football team, he was considered for VfB's professional team and, in 2001, signed his first professional contract.

After 33 matches (10 goals) for the amateur team he played 99 matches for VfB Stuttgart's professional team, scoring 40 goals. He also took part in 22 European team championship games and scored 10 goals. In the 2002-2003 season of the Fußball-Bundesliga, he was the best German goal-scorer and was one of the main reasons Stuttgart finished second in the league. In this particular season, VfB and its "Junge Wilde" ("wild young ones") – Timo Hildebrand, Andreas Hinkel, Alexander Hleb, Philipp Lahm and Kuranyi – delighted the fans in Germany with superb attacking football.

He left Stuttgart during the 2005 summer transfer window to join FC Schalke 04, signing until 2009-2010. At Gelsenkirchen, he finished top goalscorer for the team from 2005-08, while the team achieved three consecutive UEFA Champions League berths.

On April 15, 2008, Kuranyi scored 4 goals in Schalke's 5-0 defeat of Energie Cottbus in a league match, the other being an own goal. Three days earlier, incidentally, Schalke were beaten 5-1 at SV Werder Bremen, with Kuranyi also netting.

International career

Kuranyi made his debut for Germany national football team during the UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier against Lithuania national football team on March 29, 2003. In his third appearance, the young striker netted Germany's final qualifying goal in their 3-0 rout of Iceland national football team. He played for his adopted country at the tournament's finals and at the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup but, because of his underachievements in the season of 2005/2006, was not nominated for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

In 2006-2007 he regained his form. After an absence of 15 months he was therefore recalled to play for the national team, scoring during Germany's 3-1 win against Switzerland national football team on February 7, 2007, in a friendly in Düsseldorf. In Germany's UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying match against the Czech Republic national football team on March 24, he scored both goals in the 2-1 victory. He was brought on during the second half of the Euro 2008 final against Spanish national football team for Thomas Hitzlsperger, but was unable to help the Germans score in the 0-1 loss, receiving a yellow card in the process. Incidentally, the appearance in the final marked his 50th cap for Germany.

On October 11, 2008 Kurányi was left out of the 18-man squad to face Russia national football team. After watching the first half from stands with the other unselected players, he left the stadium during the half-time interval and failed to return to the German team hotel. After this incident, German team coach Joachim Löw said that he would never again select Kurányi for the national team. One of his advisors said of the incident to reporters, "He decided what he for himself found to be right, which was to say I’m going home."

International goals

Personal

He has German, Panamanian and Brazilian citizenship. Kuranyi's favorite club is Clube de Regatas do Flamengo. He can speak English language, Portuguese language, German language, and some spanish language and hungarian language.

His wife Viktorija Peličić is Croatia. On September 27, 2005 Kuranyi and his wife had their first child, a son named Karlo. They married on April 28, 2007 in Stuttgart. Their second child, a daughter named Vivien Carmen, was born on January 6, 2008.