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Lukas Podolski (IPA—German: ) (born as Łukasz Podolski on June 4, 1985 in Gliwice, Poland), nicknamed (Prinz) Poldi, is a German football player. He plays striker for Bayern Munich. He is seen as one of the most promising German players.

Early Career

Podolski was born in the industrial town of Gliwice, in Upper Silesia, Poland. His father Waldemar Podolski was also a professional football player. In 1987, when he was two years old, Podolski's parents, emigrated from communist Poland to West Germany. The Podolski family had the right to move to Germany because his grandparents were residents of the German empire (Reich) until 1945 when they became Polish citizen. Podolski grew up in Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, near Cologne.

It was at 1. FC Köln 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 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 Cologne failed to avoid the drop 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 Bundesliga.

Podolski continued to stay with the club despite relegation and was instrumental in ensuring a quick return to the top flight, scoring 24 goals in the process.

Bayern Munich

Jürgen Klinsmann, the former coach of the German national team, holds Podolski in high regard as he is lethal with his head as well as his feet and still very young and energetic. Because of this, clubs such as Bayern München, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen and even Real Madrid manifested their interest in Podolski, though he had a contract with FC Köln through 2007. On 1 June 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.

National Career

Even before the 2004/05 season began Podolski had become the first second-division player since 1975 to break into the national team, celebrating his debut for Rudi Völler's Germany on 6 June, 2004 in Kaiserslautern against Hungary with a late substitute appearance.

Podolski played for Germany at Template:Ec2, where he was the squad's youngest player. He also attended the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2005 and scored 3 goals there.

Podolski was selected in the Germany squad for the 2006 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, and two goals against Sweden in the round of 16. 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.

Honors

On July 6, 2006, Podolski was announced as the first Gillette Best Young Player award winner. Runner-up Cristiano Ronaldo had been favored to win the award, but concerns about his fair play counted against him. Holger Osieck, head of the FIFA Technical Study Group that selected the winner, praised Podolski as "a key element in Germany's attack."

Trivia

• Despite being born in Poland, Podolski does not have Polish citizenship, only German citizenship.
• Podolski speaks Polish with his parents, besides knowing German and English, which he learned in high school
• Podolski has a girlfriend, Monika, who is also from Poland
• His family name comes from the former Polish region of Podolia
• Despite being a naturalised German citizen, Lukas feels a strong bond to his native Poland and does not sing the German national anthem before international football matches. He has been quoted as saying, "It will be special and a bit strange to hear the Polish national anthem and then the German one afterwards. I will not sing either of them because I feel at home in both countries. I have not quite lost my Polish heart."
• The song "Lu-Lu-Lu Lukas Podolski" is named after him
• Podolski is one of the world's top 20 most commercially valuable soccer players. He is the face (and body) of Axe Body Spray and has his own line of Adidas boots - the LP-10s.

Club career stats

See also

• Germany national football team

References

1. Guardian Unlimited Football (2006). World Cup 2006 | Lukas Podolski. Retrieved June 25, 2006.
2. "Prince Poldi crowned Gillette Best Young Player". FIFAworldcup.com. 6 July 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-08.
3. "Ronaldo pays price". Sporting Life. 2006-07-07. Retrieved 2006-07-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. "Podolski beats Ronaldo to award". BBC Sports. 7 July 2006. Retrieved 7 July 2006.
5. Retrieved July 5, 2006.

External links

• Infos of the origin of Podolski
• Official website Template:De icon
• Lukas Podolski at IMDb

• 1985 births
• Living people
• Polish-Germans
• German footballers
• UEFA Euro 2004 players
• FC Cologne players
• Bayern Munich players
• German International players
• FIFA World Cup 2006 players