Oliver Kahn - Biography

Last Editor: James.Martin				Oliver Kahn Biography -   Name : Oliver Kahn Date of birth : June 15, 1969 Place of birth : Karlsruhe, Germany

Oliver Kahn Trivia -

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Oliver Kahn Detailed Biography -

Kahn began his football odyssey in 1976, in his native town, Karlsruhe. A year later, he was playing for Karlsruhe 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 mark 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 1994 World Cup 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 Euro 96 in England. At the 1998 World Cup 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 the unquestionable German number one. In 2002, he won the adidas Golden Ball for best player and the Yashin Award for top goalkeeper of the 2002 World Cup, Where there was only two countries to have scored on him; the Republic of Ireland and the World Cup champions Brazil. He also starred for his country at Euro 2000 and Euro 2004. He and his wife Simone split in 2003 after he was romantically linked to former barmaid Verena Kerth; he and Kerth have been in a relationship since then. He has two children. 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-to-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, approaching age (and overcoming private problems), his game has declined slowly. He hit a nadir when he allowed a seemingly easy-to-save goal against Real Madrid in 2004, but since then, has recovered to become a worldclass keeper once again. He plans to remain the number one goalie under the posts of the German national team and play in the 2006 World Cup in his homeland Germany, although trainer Jurgen Klinsmann's choices, with him playing alternatively with Jens Lehmann and Timo Hildebrand, make the enterprise difficult for him. Kahn believes he can play at top level for three to four more years.