Golden Bomber took off
Klinsmann played his national team debut on 12 December 1987 against Brazil (the game ended 1-1) and scored
his first national team goal on 27 April 1988 in a home game against Switzerland in the 58th minute (the game ended 1-0).
Since then, he has featured for Germany in the 1988 Olympic Games, the 1992 and
1996 European Championships, and
the 1990,
1994 and
1998 World Cups. He earned a total of 108 national caps and scored 47 goals.
Among these 108 international appearances, Klinsmann won 66 matches and lost 15 matches, and 27 matches were draw.
Quiz: A few photos of Klinsmann playing at different major tournaments are shown on the right column. Can you recognize all the tournaments? (Ans: see the bottom of this page)
Klinsmann had only worked with 2 national coaches - Franz Beckenbauer (1987-1990) and
Berti Vogts (1990-1998) - throughout his national team career. Among his 108 international appearances,
he had featured in the starting lineup 99 times and joined the game as substitute
9 times. He had been substituted out 21 times.
German captain
Klinsmann was appointed as the captain of the German national team by Vogts in 1995. He succeeded the captainship from Matthaus.
Ups & Downs
Every player has ups and downs, Klinsmann is no exception. The peak of Klinsmann's national team career was
obviously in 1990 when he won the 1990 World Cup and scored 3 World Cup goals. Another peak was in 1996 when
he, as captain, led Germany to win the 1996 European Championship and also scored 3 Euro goals. The 1994 World Cup
could have been another peak in Klinsmann's national team career if Germany could go further because Klinsmann
had scored 5 goals in this tournament.
For the downs, Klinsmann had two. The first was in the 1992 when he lost his regular place in the national team
due to lack of form. The second was just after the 1996 European Championship until 1997. During this period,
Klinsmann was unable to score for the national team for 854 minutes.
Goals
As said above, Klinsmann had scored 47 goals in his national team career. Among these 47 goals, 14 of them
were scored in Germany and 33 of them were scored in 17 other countries. Besides Germany, Klinsmann scored
most goals in the USA (9 goals). The table below summarizes the cities where Klinsmann had scored an
international goal.
Country |
Cities (Goals) |
Total |
Germany |
Berlin (2) - Bochum (2) - Dortmund (3) - Kaiserslautern (2) - Mannheim (2) - Stuttgart (3) |
14 |
USA |
Washington (2) - Chicago (4) - Detroit (1) - Dallas (2) |
9 |
England |
Manchester (3) |
3 |
France |
Paris (1) - Montpelliar (2) |
3 |
Italy |
Milan (3) |
3 |
Georgia |
Tbilisi (2) |
2 |
Netherlands |
Goteborg (1) - Rotterdam (1) |
2 |
Albania |
Tirane (1) |
1 |
Armenia |
Yerevan (1) |
1 |
Austria |
Vienna (1) |
1 |
Bulgaria |
Sofia (1) |
1 |
Denmark |
Gelsenkirchen (1) |
1 |
Luxembourg |
Luxembourg (1) |
1 |
Moldova |
Chisinau (1) |
1 |
Poland |
Zabrze (1) |
1 |
Sweden |
Stockholm (1) |
1 |
Uruguay |
Montevideo (1) |
1 |
Wales |
Cardiff (1) |
1 |
End of national team career
In April 1997, he announced his decision to retire
from German national team after the end of the 1998 World Cup. Klinsmann scored his last national goal in the Round-of-16 match
of the 1998 World Cup against Mexico in the 75th minute. He played his last
natoinal match against Croatia in the quarter-finals of the 1998 World Cup in which Germany
was defeated by 3-0.
Golden Bomber's partners
A number of German forwards had played with Klinsmann in Germany's frontline during the national team career of Klinsmann.
-
Klinsmann's first national team forward partner was Voller who had been Klinsmann's main striking partner until 1992 before the 1992 European Championship.
Voller did not played with Klinsmann in Euro 92 because Voller was injured in the first match of Euro 92 and therefore Riedle was Klinsmann's partner in Euro 92.
Riedle also played with Klinsmann occasionally since 1989.
- In 1993, Riedle became Klinsmann's main striking partner as Voller had retired from the German national team. Besides, Kristen and Kuntz had also partnered with Klinsmann occasionally.
- In 1994, Klinsmann did not have a regular striking partner. He played with Bobic, Kristen, Kuntz, Riedle and Voller (who returned to the German national team).
- In the 1994 World Cup, Klinsmann's initial partner was Riedle who was in subsequent matches replaced by Voller.
- In 1995, Herrlich was Klinsmann's main partner. Bobic, Kristen and Kuntz also played with Klinsmann occasionally.
- In 1996 and in the 1996 European Championship, Klinsmann usually partnered with Bierhoff or Bobic. Besides, Kuntz also played with Klinsmann occasionally.
- In 1997, Klinsmann did not have a regular striking partner. He played with Bierhoff, Bobic and Kristen.
- In 1998 and in the 1998 World Cup, Klinsmann's main partner was Bierhoff. Besides, Kristen and Marshall featured occasionally.
Golden Bomber's records
Below is a list of records created by Klinsmann while he was playing for German national team (as of July 2006, source: German Football Association (DFB), at http://www.dfb.de/):
- 2nd German topscorer (47 goals) - the 1st topscorer is Muller who scored 68 goals
- 2nd most capped German player (108 caps) - the 1st one is the veteran Matthaus who has capped 150 times
- 2nd German topscorer in World Cup (11 goals) - the 1st topscorer is again Muller who scored 14 World-Cup-goals in 1970 and 1974
- 10th most capped German player in World Cup (17 caps) - the 1st most World-Cup-capped player is obviously Matthaus who has featured in 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998
- 5th topscorer in World Cup (11 goals) - the 1st all-time World-Cup-topscorer is Ronaldo (15 goals) and the 2nd is Muller (14 goals)
- 1st player to score at least 3 goals in 3 consecutive World Cup
- 1st German topscorer in European Championship (5 goals)
- 1st most capped German player in European Championship (13 caps) - Klinsmann shares this record with Hassler
- 1st player to score in 3 consecutive European Championships
Gold Bomber in major tournaments
If you want to know more about Klinsmann while he was playing in major tournaments for Germany, you can click the links below:
External links
Below are some external links showing the statistics about Klinsmann while he was playing for Germany (open in new window):
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