Club

Bayern Munich

Jürgen Klinsmann, the former coach of Germany, held Podolski in high regard as he is an effective scorer with both his head and feet. Because of this, clubs such as Bayern Munich, Hamburg, Werder Bremen and even Real Madrid manifested their interest in Podolski, even though he had a contract with FC Köln through 2007. On June 1, 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. He made his Bundesliga debut for Bayern on August 11, 2006 with a 2:0 victory against Borussia Dortmund, coming on as a substitute in the 88th minute. On September 9, 2006, he came on as a second half substitute in a DFB cup game versus FC St Pauli. Only 26 seconds after the second half started, he scored the equaliser, evening the match 1:1. On October 14, 2006, with his first Bundesliga goal for Bayern, Podolski helped to secure the club`s 4-2 win over Hertha Berlin. On 26 October 2006, Podolski suffered a grave injury to his right ankle joint caused by teammate, Mark van Bommel, during a training session. Consequently, Podolski missed more than five matchweeks. He returned from this injury and scored against Alemannia Aachen. Recently he added two goals to his tally against Bolton Wanderers in a UEFA Cup fixture at Munich.

National Team

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 Euro 2004, 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 both goals in the 2-0 win over Sweden in the round of 16. By this, 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. During the World Cup, Lukas Podolski and his German squad went to the semi-finals and lost to Italy 2-0 in extra time. And, eventually won the third place match against Portugal. His three goals in the tournament tied him for second in the Golden Boot competition, which was won by his teammate Miroslav Klose with 5 goals. Podolski was tied with Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Fernando Torres, David Villa, Maxi Rodriguez, Hernán Crespo, and FIFA World Cup MVP (winner of the Golden Ball) Zinedine Zidane. Podolski was named the World Cup`s Best Young Player for his performance in the tournament.

On September 6, 2006, Podolski netted 4 goals in a Euro 2008 qualifying game against San Marino, which made him only third German after Gerd Müller and Michael Ballack to score 4 goals in an international match. The final score of the match in Serravalle was 0-13. In Germany`s 4-1 win against Slovakia in Bratislava on October 11, 2006, he scored the first and the last German goal, both on assists by Miroslav Klose. He has continued to score goals at an astonishing rate. On the 11 November 2007 in a Euro qualifier match against Cyprus, Podolski was involved in every goal in Germany`s 4-0 victory. This was one of Podolski`s best performances for the German national team even though he played out of his natural position, playing at left midfield, he netted one goal himself and was voted Man of the Match.