Lukas Podolski

Lukas Podolski (born as on June 4, 1985 nicknamed (Prinz) Poldi) is a Germany association football who plays as a striker for FC Bayern Munich and is a member of the Germany national football team.

Early life

Podolski was born to Krystyna Podolski, a former member of the Poland women's national handball team and Waldemar Podolski, former Polish football professional and the 1980 champion of Poland with Szombierki Bytom, in the Upper Silesian industrial town of Gliwice, Poland . In 1987, when Lukas Podolski was only two years old, his family emigrated from Poland to West Germany as German minority in Poland (Aussiedler). Podolski grew up in Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, and later in Pulheim, both near Cologne.

Club career

1. FC Köln

Podolski began playing football at the age of six in the youth team of FC Bergheim, where he played until he joined 1. FC Köln in 1995. It was there where Podolski's talents were first noticed. In 2003, at the age of 18, Podolski was still part of the club's youth side. At this time the club found itself in dire straits battling to avoid relegation from the Fußball-Bundesliga. First team boss Marcel Koller, working on a shoestring budget, invited Podolski to train with the senior players and he made his top flight debut shortly afterwards on November 22 2003. Even though Köln failed to avoid a drop to the 2. Fußball-Bundesliga, Podolski had shown what he could do, scoring 10 goals in his first 19 senior appearances. This was the best tally by an 18 year old in the history of the Fußball-Bundesliga.

Though his call up to the Germany national football team UEFA Euro 2004 squad brought along interest from several top clubs, Podolski stayed at 1. FC Köln to help the club gain promotion in the Second Fußball-Bundesliga 2004-05. With 24 goals, Podolski advanced to become the league's best scorer. Somewhat unusually, Podolski remained part of the Germany national football team, even though he did not play in the national top tier league.

After 1. FC Köln were promoted, the pressure was on Podolski to keep the club in the Fußball-Bundesliga practically singlehandedly. Podolski managed to score 12 goals in the Fußball-Bundesliga 2005-06, but eventually, 1. FC Köln were relegated again. It became clear that Podolski would not stay again to push them through the Second Fußball-Bundesliga 2006-07 - even more so, as Podolski was becoming an integral part of the Germany national football team.

Bayern Munich

In 2006, clubs such as FC Bayern Munich, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen and even Real Madrid manifested their interest in Podolski, even though he had a contract with 1. FC Köln through 2007. On June 1 2006, Podolski announced that a transfer agreement had been reached with Bayern Munich, allowing him to join the Bavarian side for the 2006–07 season. Financial details of the deal were not immediately available, but the transfer fee was speculated to be around €10 million. He made his Bundesliga debut for Bayern on August 11 2006 with a 2–0 victory against Borussia Dortmund, coming on as a substitute in the 88th minute. On September 9 2006, he came on as a second half substitute in a DFB cup game versus FC St Pauli. Only 26 seconds after the second half started, he scored the Equaliser (football), evening the match 1:1. On October 14 2006, with his first Bundesliga goal for Bayern, Podolski helped to secure the club's 4-2 win over Hertha BSC Berlin. On October 26 2006, Podolski suffered a serious injury to his right ankle joint caused by teammate, Mark van Bommel, during a training session. Consequently, Podolski missed more than five match weeks. He returned from this injury and scored against Alemannia Aachen.

He sometimes communicates with fellow Bayern and national team striker Miroslav Klose, who is also Poland-born, in Polish to hinder their opposition's understanding of their conversation.

International career

In late 2003, after a couple of impressive performances in his first few Bundesliga games, Polish media suggested then-Polish national team coach Paweł Janas to check Podolski out, as he was still eligible to play for Poland. Janas ignored the request stating in one of the press interviews that "as for today we have much better strikers in Poland and I don't see a reason to call up a player just because he played one or two good matches in the Bundesliga. He's not even a regular starter at his club." By that time Podolski was still interested in representing Poland, but as the season progressed more and more German media started to suggest to call up the striker to their national team. When his full potential was finally unveiled, he had already been persuaded to represent Germany. At the end of the season Köln were relegated, but Podolski impressed so much, that he celebrated his debut for Rudi Völler's Germany on June 6 2004 in Kaiserslautern against Hungary with a late substitute appearance. He had become the first second-division player since 1975 to break into the national team.

Euro 2004

Podolski played for Germany national football team at UEFA Euro 2004, where he was the squad's youngest player. He made one substitute appearance in the game against the Czech Republic, when he came on for Torsten Frings at half-time.

World Cup 2006

Podolski was selected in the 2006 FIFA World Cup squads Germany for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, where he partnered Miroslav Klose in attack. He scored his first ever World Cup goal in Germany's 3rd group match against Ecuador national football team, and both goals in the 2-0 win over Sweden in the round of 16. By this, he became the first player since 1962 to score two goals in the first 12 minutes of a World Cup match and only the third man ever to accomplish the feat. Germany went to the semi-finals and lost to Italy 2-0 in extra time. And, eventually won the third place match against Portugal national football team. His three goals in the tournament tied him for second in the Golden Boot competition, which was won by his teammate Miroslav Klose with five goals. Podolski was tied with Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Fernando Torres, David Villa, Maxi Rodriguez, Hernán Crespo, and FIFA World Cup MVP (winner of the Golden Ball) Zinedine Zidane. Podolski was named the World Cup's FIFA World Cup awards Best Young Player Award .

Euro 2008

On September 6 2006, Podolski netted four goals in a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying game against San Marino national football team, which made him only third German after Gerd Müller and Michael Ballack to score four goals in an international match. The final score of the match in Serravalle, San Marino was 0-13. In Germany's 4-1 win against Slovakia national football team in Bratislava on October 11 2006, he scored the first and the last German goal, both on assists by Miroslav Klose. He has continued to score goals at an astonishing rate. On the November 17 2007, in a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group D match against Cyprus national football team, Podolski was involved in every goal in Germany's 4-0 victory. This was one of Podolski's best performances for the national team. Even though he played out of his natural position, playing at left midfield, he netted one goal himself and was voted Man of the Match.

On Sunday June 8 2008, Podolski made his UEFA Euro 2008 entrance against debutants Poland national football team in a UEFA Euro 2008 Group B match in Klagenfurt, Austria. He scored both goals in a 2-0 victory. He avoided celebrating his goals, however, to show respect for his country of birth. After the game he gave an emotional interview on Polish television. The goals put him in the lead in the Euro 2008 goal-scoring list for two days until David Villa scored a hat-trick for Spain national football team against Russia national football team.

On June 12, Germany played Croatia national football team in their second Group B match, again in Klagenfurt. Podolski scored the German team's only goal of the game in the 79th minute, by which time the Croatians were already leading 2-0. He did not celebrate this goal either despite it putting him joint first on the Euro 2008 goal-scoring list with David Villa. Podolski's goal was not enough to snatch a draw, with Croatia holding out for a 2-1 victory over Germany. On June 19, Germany played Portugal in the quarterfinal in Basel, Podolski was instrumental in the first goal, whipping a cross into the penalty box that slotted home by Bastian Schweinsteiger in the 22nd minute to give Germany a 1-0 lead.

On the international scene, Podolski seems to be gravitating towards an attacking left midfield role from his traditional place as a striker. He resumed this position in the UEFA Euro 2008 Final of the UEFA Euro 2008, but was unable to prevent Germany losing 1-0 to Spain national football team. In a controversial incident, Podolski was headbutted by Spanish midfielder David Silva, although this went unnoticed by the referee and his assistants, and went unpenalised. Lukas Podolski was named in the 23 man squad as one of the players of the tournament along with countrymen Michael Ballack and Philipp Lahm. He also earned himself the title of Midfielder of the Tournament.