Philipp Lahm (born 11 November 1983 in Munich, Bavaria) is a German footballer who plays as a defender for Bayern Munich and Germany. General information Philipp Lahm has played for VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich in Bundesliga and for Germany at Euro 2004, the 2006 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2008, and scored the opening goal of aforementioned world cup. He is considered one of the best full backs in the world, as is shown by his inclusion in the Mastercard All Star Team in 2006 and the UEFA Team of the Tournament in 2008. He is well known for his pace, dribbling and crossing abilities as well as his small stature. Although Lahm is right-footed, and while he played as a right back as a youth, he has also been played effectively at left back, where his runs with the ball from the left flank and swift cut-ins towards the centre, where he could then shoot with his strong right foot, has been a potent weapon for both Bayern and Germany. Club career Early career Lahm developed into a professional football player within the Bayern Munich Junior Team. He came to the team at the age of 11 after a junior coach, Jan Pienta, had scouted him several times while he was playing for the local junior team in Gern, Munich, his hometown.[1] He was considered very talented already as a junior by his coaches, one of them, Herman Hummels even once saying "If Philipp Lahm will not make it in the Bundesliga, nobody will anymore."[2] He won twice the A-junior Bundesliga, second time as a captain of the team[1] and was taken into the amateur side at the age of 17 (2001). His amateur coach Herman Gerland considers Lahm as the most talented player he has ever coached[3] and made him the captain of the amateur team during his second season. During his junior and amateur years Lahm mostly played as a defensive midfielder, right midfielder or right full-back.[4] As Willy Sagnol was playing as a right back, Bixente Lizarazu was the main left back for Bayern Munich and their midfield was also well covered, Lahm was loaned to Stuttgart for the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons. VfB Stuttgart Lahm was originally signed as a back-up for Andreas Hinkel to the right defensive position, but coach Felix Magath tried him out on different positions and he finally ended up playing as a left back, a position on which he toppled the German international Heiko Gerber.[5] He made his Bundesliga debut on the first day of the season 2003–04 against Hansa Rostock as he came in as a substitute in the 76th minute for the midfielder Silvio Meissner. His first professional game as a left back he played on the fourth round as a 63rd minute substitute for Gerber and his first game over full 90 minutes followed on the sixth round against Borussia Dortmund. Thereafter he established his role as a regular for Stuttgart.[6] His first UEFA Champions League appearance Lahm had already made the previous season with Bayern Munich as a late substitute against RC Lens, but his first Champions League game in the starting line-up came on the 29 September, 2003, against Manchester United. During the 2003–04 season Lahm eventually appeared for Stuttgart in 31 Bundesliga and seven Champions League matches and came second in the election for the German footballer of the year. During the second season in Stuttgart (2004–2005) Lahm was having substantially more difficult time.[5] After the Euro 2004 tournament and the resulting shorter vacation and pre-season training he was having difficulties getting off the ground and also in conforming with the tactics and system of the new trainer Matthias Sammer. However, he still made 16 Bundesliga appearances for Stuttgart before the Christmas break, 14 of them over the full 90 minutes, and six appearances in the UEFA Cup.[7] In January 2005 Lahm suffered a stress-fracture on his right foot and was thus sidelined for four months, making his comeback on 9 April 2005, against FC Schalke 04. Only around five weeks later (17 May 2005) he however injured himself again, this time suffering a torn cruciate ligament which ended his season and simultaneously also his career in Stuttgart.[1] FC Bayern Munich In July 2005, Lahm returned to Bayern Munich. However, the torn cruciate ligament he had suffered just before his return, forced him to start his professional time in FC Bayern on rehabilitation. He returned to the field at the end of November playing first twice for the amateur side of Bayern and thereafter making his first professional Bundesliga appearance for Bayern in November 2005 against Arminia Bielefeld.[8] During the season he appeared for Bayern 20 times in Bundesliga and thrice in Champions League, contending over field-time evenly with Bixente Lizarazu. During the season 2006–07 Lahm played in all of Bayern's 34 Bundesliga games and in nine of the ten Champions League games and was only substituted twice, mainly because he was the only left back in the team but also due to his sufficiently solid performances during a season that was one of the worst for Bayern in many years. For the season 2007–08 Bayern bought the German international left back Marcell Jansen and Lahm was supposed to be reverted to right, both to accommodate Jansen and to replace French right back Willy Sagnol. Due to injuries (both his and Jansen's) he still mainly ended up playing left for Bayern and has since also remained left, although he uttered his wish to play on right several times during the year 2008. During the whole season there were various rumors suggesting that Lahm would leave Bayern in the summer of 2008 to join FC Barcelona and the transfer seemed to be almost a done deal.[9] However, on 16 May 2008 FC Bayern signed a new contract with Lahm. His new contract will keep him in Munich until 20 June 2012.[10] As reasons for his decision to stay true to Bayern he stated i.e. the good discussion with the manager Uli Hoeneß and new coach Jürgen Klinsmann and the desire not to pass the reform started in the club.[11] International career Lahm started his international career in the U19 national team. He was part of the team that won silver for Germany in the 2002 U19 European championship playing in all games in the final tournament and scoring a crucial goal in the 90th minute (2–3) against England in a game that ended 3–3.[12] After that he played a few U20 and U21 games for Germany but impressed Rudi Völler enough to hand the youngster his debut on 18 February 2004. His first game was a 2–1 win over Croatia, where he played the full 90 minutes and was chosen as the man of the match by German football magazine Kicker.[13] He was also part of Germany's team in the Euro 2004 in Portugal and played full 90 minutes in all three games. Although Germany didn't make it past the group stage, Lahm's performance was considered very promising and many German papers saw it as the only positive thing about the tournament. Lahm missed over a year in the international football between January 2005 and March 2006 due to injuries (stress-fracture on foot and a torn cruciate ligament), therefore also missing the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, but after his recovery he immediately made it back to the starting line-up. Even though he injured his elbow in a friendly game right before the World Cup 2006 and thus had to wear a special cast on his left arm,[14] Jürgen Klinsmann still saw him as the first option for the left defensive position. He scored the opening goal of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany against Costa Rica in the sixth minute, cutting inside the area and launching a right foot shot into the top-right corner of the net and was nominated Man of the Match for his performance in the game Germany versus Poland. He was also the only German player to play all 690 minutes of the 2006 World Cup and was also elected to the 2006 Mastercard All Star Team. During the Euro 2008 he was in the starting line-up of Germany in all the games and was only substituted in the final after getting a cut needing stitches on his foot. Lahm started the tournament as a right back but replaced the under-performing Jansen as left back after 1.5 games. On 25 June 2008, he scored the winning goal of the Euro 2008 semi-final against Turkey in the 90th minute. He described this as the most important goal of his career and although he was elected the Man of the Match, he himself considered that not as well-deserved.[15] On 29 June 2008 Lahm played part in the Euro 2008 final against Spain. On 33 minutes Xavi Hernandez played a piercing ball through the German defence and a lack of communication between Lahm and German Goalkeeper Jens Lehmann let Fernando Torres in behind with a sublime dink over Lehmann and the Torres goal was the decisive factor with Spain prevailing 1-0 to win its first European Championship in 44 years. Lahm was nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year 2006 following his outstanding performance in the 2006 FIFA World Cup and again 2007. 2006 he was in contention alongside fellow Germans Michael Ballack, Miroslav Klose and Jens Lehmann, but the award was won on 18 December 2006 by the Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro. However, he was chosen as the left back for the UEFA Team of the Year 2006 and came second in the same election next year, losing only by less than 1% of the given votes to the winner Eric Abidal. 2008 Lahm was again voted as the left back for the UEFA Team of the Year. Lahm has been a candidate for the UEFA Team of the Year in all of his professional years when he has been fit (2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008) and is therefore alongside Michael Ballack most often nominated German player for the aforementioned team and the second German having been elected more than once. In 2008, Lahm was also chosen as the left back for the FIFA Team of the Year, winning the election before Manchester United left back Patrice Evra by 2% of the given votes [16]. Lahm was ever present during Germany's 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign and was the only player to play all 90 minutes in all ten matches. Personal Information Lahm does a lot of charity work and has taken part on several charity campaigns and events. In June 2007, FIFA announced that Lahm and Owen Hargreaves would visit South Africa in advance to support the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[17] Although Hargreaves never managed to take part in the trip due to injury, Lahm and a fellow German national teammate, Piotr Trochowski, visited the country taking time not only to visit the 2010 FIFA World Cup organizers but, also to visit a local SOS Children's Village and to take part in the Kick-AIDS event.[18] He has established a foundation, Philipp-Lahm-Stiftung, to support underprivileged children and is also an official ambassador representing "FIFA for SOS Children's Villages".[19] In addition he was an ambassador of the 2007, 2008 and 2009 World AIDS Day. He has also taken part on a campaign against speeding and various others such as Bündnis für Kinder against child abuse.[9][20] Lahm was awarded a Tolerantia-Preis on 20 September 2008, due to his outstanding contribution against intolerance and homophobia in sports, particularly in football.[21] On 8 November 2009 Lahm was given the highest fine in the history of Bayern Munich to date (estimated to be over €25,000) after giving an unauthorised interview in Süddeutsche Zeitung. He criticised the transfer policy of the club and the lack of game philosophy and strategic planning.[22][23][24] This incident drew mixed reactions from fans and the media, both local and foreign, with some saying that Lahm should have kept his opinions to himself and others praising him for his honesty.[25] Nonetheless, he kept his place in the Bayern starting line-up.