Jurgen Klinsmann's Biography

Jürgen Klinsmann was born on July 30th 1964 in Göppingen.

Klinsmann played for TB Gingen, SC Geislingen (for whom he scored over 100 goals in a season aged 9), and SV Stuttgarter Kickers before joining VfB Stuttgart in 1984.

Klinsmann made his Bundesliga debut at 20. Klinsmann's success with Stuttgart was such that he was made German Footballer of the Year in 1988 when he was the Bundesliga top scorer.

From 1989 – 1992 Klinsmann played for Inter Milan, but undoubtedly the highlight in that period was on the national stage when he won a World Cup winners medal with Germany in Italy 1990. Klinsmann's dive in the final against Argentina was judged by The Observer as the second best football dive.

In 1992 Inter won the Uefa Cup and at the end of the season Klinsmann left to play for Monaco and then Spurs.

Whilst playing for Spurs, Klinsmann was made England's Footballer of the Year - also in 1995 he was runner-up in the European Footballer of the Year.

Klinsmann then joined Bayern Munich, with whom he won the Uefa Cup in 1996 (the same year that Germany won the Euro Championships). He also won the Bundesliga with Bayern in 1997.

Klinsmann then had stints at Sampdoria and Spurs (again) before moving to the USA to be an adviser with Los Angeles Galaxy.

In 2004 Jurgen Klinsmann was appointed German national coach, in spite of the fact that he still lived in California and he had no real coaching experience.

Although heavily criticised by big names such as Lothar Matthaus, he attracted praise from the likes of Michael Ballack, who said:

"I have rarely had a coach who is so incredibly positive and who can motivate people to such a degree."

Klinsmann took Germany, the hosts, to the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup, but in the end they were defeated 2-0 by two late strikes in extra time by the Italians.

The Germans had played well and although they failed to reach the final, most pundits before the World Cup started, would have been surprised at how far Germany did manage to progress. In the end, they defeated Portugal 3-1 and so secured third place.

BBC presenter, Gary Lineker, noted about the game: "I noticed Miroslav Klose was taken off. Funny, because he was one behind coach Jurgen Klinsmann's tally of 11 World Cup goals."

In spite of the good performance, Klinsmann decided not to renew his contract as Germany's coach after the World Cup. He said: "After two years of putting in a lot of energy, I feel I lack the power and the strength to continue in the same way."

In January 2008, the BBC reported that Jurgen Klinsmann would take over as coach of Bayern Munich at the start of the 2008/9 season.

In April 2009, Jurgen Klinsmann was sacked by Bayern Munich after just eight months in charge.

In July 2011, Jurgen Klinsmann was appointed head coach of the United States national team.