Philipp Lahm

Philipp Lahm (German pronunciation: [ˈfɪlɪp ˈlaːm]; born 11 November 1983) is a German former professional footballer who played as a full-back or midfielder. Widely regarded as one of the greatest full-backs of all time, Lahm was the long-time captain of Bayern Munich, having led them to numerous honours including the UEFA Champions League in 2013 as part of the treble.

Lahm is also a former captain of his national team, which he led to win the 2014 FIFA World Cup, before retiring from international football. He was included in the World Cup team of the tournament in 2006, 2010, and 2014, and the UEFA Team of the Tournament in 2008 and 2012 and in the UEFA Team of the Year 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2014. His 113 appearances make him the eighth-most capped player in Germany’s history.

Lahm developed into a professional football player within the Bayern Munich Junior Team. He joined the team at the age of 11 after a youth coach, Jan Pienta, had scouted him several times while he was playing for the local youth team in his hometown Gern, Munich. He was already considered very talented; one of his coaches, Hermann Hummels, even stated that "If Philipp Lahm will not make it in the Bundesliga, nobody will anymore." He twice won the Bundesliga youth title, the second time as captain of his team, and then was introduced into the B team at the age of 17. His former amateur coach Hermann Gerland considers Lahm to be the most talented player he has ever coached and made him the captain of the B team during his second season. Up to this point Lahm played as a defensive midfielder, right midfielder or right full-back.

On 13 November 2002, Lahm made his debut for the Bayern Munich first-team as a 92nd-minute substitute in a 3–3 draw with Lens in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. However, since Willy Sagnol and Bixente Lizarazu were established as Bayern's first choice full-backs, and the club's midfield was also well-staffed, Lahm made no further appearances during the 2002–03 season and was loaned to VfB Stuttgart for the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons to gain first-team experience in the Bundesliga.

Lahm was originally signed as a back-up for Andreas Hinkel, who played as right/back, but coach Felix Magath moved him to the left-back position, on which he toppled the German international Heiko Gerber. He made his Bundesliga debut on the first day of the 2003–04 season against Hansa Rostock as he came in as a substitute left back in the 76th minute for midfielder Silvio Meissner. He made his first professional start as a left-back on the fourth matchday as a 63rd-minute substitute for Gerber and his first game over the full 90 minutes followed on the sixth matchday against Borussia Dortmund. Thereafter he established himself as a regular left back for Stuttgart. On 29 September 2003, Lahm made his first Champions League appearance as a starter against Manchester United. On 3 April 2004, he scored his first ever Bundesliga goal in a 5–1 away win for Stuttgart against VfL Wolfsburg. During the 2003–04 season Lahm appeared for Stuttgart in 31 Bundesliga and seven Champions League matches overall and came second in the election for the Germany Footballer of the year.

During his second season in Stuttgart, Lahm had substantially more difficult time. After the Euro 2004 tournament and the resulting shorter vacation and pre-season training, he had difficulties getting off the ground and also in conforming with the tactics and system of the new coach 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. In January 2005, Lahm suffered a stress-fracture in his right foot and was thus sidelined for four months, making his comeback on 9 April 2005, against Schalke 04. Only around five weeks later, he was injured again, this time suffering a torn cruciate ligament which ended his season and simultaneously his career in Stuttgart.

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 at Bayern on rehabilitation. He returned to the field at the end of November, playing twice for the B team and thereafter making his first professional Bundesliga appearance for Bayern in November 2005 against Arminia Bielefeld. During the 2005–06 season he appeared for Bayern 20 times in the Bundesliga and thrice in the Champions League, contending over field-time evenly with Bixente Lizarazu.

During the 2006–07 season, 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. On 20 August 2006, in Bayern's first away match of the season, a 2–1 win over VfL Bochum, he scored his first goal for the club.

For the 2007–08 season, Bayern bought the German international left-back Marcell Jansen and Lahm was supposed to revert 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 remained left for the end of the season, although he expressed 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 Barcelona and the transfer seemed to be almost a done deal. However, on 16 May 2008 Lahm signed a new contract with Bayern Munich. keeping him at the club until 30 June 2012.

Lahm had his most prolific goalscoring season in the 2008–09 season, scoring three times in the Bundesliga and once in the DFB-Pokal. However, the season was a poor one for Bayern, leading to the sacking of head coach Jürgen Klinsmann after less than a year in charge.

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 the Süddeutsche Zeitung. He criticised the transfer policy of the club and the lack of game philosophy and strategic planning. Back in May 2008 Lahm had turned down lucrative offers from Manchester United and Barcelona to stay with Bayern as club president Uli Hoeneß promised to build a team that could challenge in Europe. 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. Although he was fined and heavily criticised by the club, he kept his place in the Bayern starting lineup and went on to have a good season.

Lahm started his international career in the U19 national team. He was part of the team that won silver for Germany in the 2002 UEFA European Under-19 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. Afterwards he played a few U20 and U21 matches for Germany before impressing Rudi Völler enough to hand the youngster his debut on 18 February 2004, at 20 years of age. 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. He was also part of Germany's team in UEFA Euro 2004 in Portugal and played full 90 minutes in all three games. Although Germany did not make it past the group stage, Lahm's performance was considered very promising and many German papers saw this as the sole positive aspect in Germany's lack of accomplishment in the tournament.

Lahm missed more than a year of international football between January 2005 and March 2006 due to injuries (stress-fracture on foot and a torn cruciate ligament), including the 2005 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 2006 FIFA World Cup and thus had to wear a special cast on his left arm, Jürgen Klinsmann still chose him as first option for the left back position. He scored the first goal in the opening game of the 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. He was awarded Man of the Match for his performance in the second group game against Poland. He was also the only German player to play the complete 690 minutes of the World Cup and was also elected to the All Star Team of the tournament.

During UEFA Euro 2008 he was in Germany's starting line-up in all 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 midway through the second game. 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 Man of the Match, he himself did not consider this as well-deserved. On 29 June 2008 – in the Euro 2008 final against Spain – on 33 minutes Xavi played a piercing ball through the German defence and a lack of communication between Lahm and German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann allowed Fernando Torres to net the decisive goal in the game. Spain prevailed 1–0 to win its second European Championship title in 44 years.

Lahm was ever present during Germany's 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign and was the only player to play every single minute.

Following the withdrawal of regular captain Michael Ballack from the 2010 FIFA World Cup squad due to injury, Lahm was chosen to captain the team at the upcoming tournament. On 13 June 2010, he captained the national team in the opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup against Australia, becoming the youngest player to captain a German side in a World Cup tournament. The team advanced all the way to the semi-finals, where they were defeated by Spain 1–0. Lahm did not play in the third-place (bronze) match against Uruguay due to an infection, so in his absence Bastian Schweinsteiger captained the team which won 3–2.

Lahm's captaincy would later become permanent, when coach Joachim Löw announced that Ballack would not be considered to play for Germany anymore.

Captain Lahm's solid defending helped Germany win all ten qualification matches for UEFA Euro 2012, and he also provided one assist each for Mesut Özil and Mario Gómez. He was an ever-present in the German defence that attracted praise from a variety of sources. Germany won all three group games against Portugal, Netherlands, and Denmark. Lahm scored the opening goal in their 4–2 victory over Greece in the quarter-finals. Germany was eliminated 2–1 by Italy in the semi-finals.

On 6 September 2013, Lahm was awarded his 100th cap for the Germany national team in a 3–0 win over Austria during qualification for the 2014 World Cup.

On 16 June 2014, Lahm started for Germany in central midfield in their first match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, a 4–0 defeat of Portugal in Salvador, and remained in the position for the other two group games and the round of 16 match against Algeria.

Lahm reverted to right back for the quarter-final against France, and remained there in Germany's 7–1 victory over Brazil in the semi-final. On 11 July 2014, Lahm was named on the 10-man shortlist for FIFA's Golden Ball award for the tournament's best player.

On 13 July 2014, Lahm led Germany to a World Cup victory, a 1–0 win against Argentina in the final, the fourth time Germany have won the competition and the first for a reunified Germany. Fritz Walter, Franz Beckenbauer, and Lothar Matthäus had skippered West Germany to the World Cup title.

On 18 July 2014, Lahm, at the age of 30, announced his retirement from international football. He had scored five goals in 113 appearances. On 2 September 2014, Bastian Schweinsteiger succeeded Lahm as captain of the Germany national team.

On 8 December 2017, Lahm was named honorary ambassador for Germany's bid to host the UEFA Euro 2024. Lahm was a UEFA Euro 2020 ambassador and later became the tournament director for UEFA Euro 2024. In August 2022, Lahm criticised the awarding of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar, citing human rights violations in the country and claimed that he would boycott the tournament.

Although Lahm is right-footed, he was able to play on both sides of the pitch due to his tactical intelligence, crossing ability, and versatility. He played as a left-back for much of his early career before switching to right-back later on. He often cut from the flank to the inside of the pitch to either shoot and/or pass. In particular, he was renowned for his pace, technique, stamina, and precise tackling abilities, as well as his small stature, which earned him the nickname the "Magic Dwarf"; despite his size and playing role, he was described in 2010 by Matthew Scianitti of CBC Sports as having "deceptive strength and impressive shooting skills," which allowed him to assist his teams both offensively and defensively.

During his time under manager Pep Guardiola, Lahm also occasionally played as a central or defensive midfielder, in a pivot role in a 3–4–3 formation, which has been likened to that of a metodista ("centre-half," in Italian football jargon), due to his ability to dictate play in midfield and act as a playmaker by starting attacks in addition to assisting his team defensively by winning back possession. Owing to his positioning, tactical sense, and tackling ability despite his small stature, as well as his wide range of skills, such as ability to read the game, leadership qualities, consistency, and ability on the ball, he is widely regarded by pundits as one of the best full-backs of all time. Guardiola once described Lahm as "perhaps the most intelligent player" he had ever coached.

During their time together at Bayern Munich, Lahm also formed an efficient partnership with winger Arjen Robben along the right flank. Robben's improved defensive work-rate at the club allowed him to track back and cover for Lahm's overlapping runs.

Lahm is known as a private person who maintains a low-profile outside of football; his best friend Andreas Ottl was the only footballer present at his wedding to Claudia Schattenberg. The couple have a son, Julian, and a daughter, Lenia. A Munich native, Lahm is a lifelong Bayern fan and served as a ball boy at the Olympic Stadium.

Lahm is involved in many 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. Although Hargreaves never managed to take part in the trip due to injury, Lahm and Germany 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.

In August 2011 at age 27 Lahm released his autobiography, Der feine Unterschied: Wie man heute Spitzenfußballer wird (The Subtle Difference – How to Become a Top Footballer), reviewing his football career and personal experiences, the general football environment, football in the social context and the effectiveness of different coaching and training methods. The number-one bestselling book received extensive media attention in Germany, and has been criticized for parts in which Lahm discerningly analyzed his former coaches' work; among the critics were Rudi Völler (himself criticized by Lahm in the book) and Ottmar Hitzfeld.

Bundesliga: 2005–06, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17

DFB-Pokal: 2005–06, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2015–16

UEFA European Under-19 Championship runner-up: 2002

FIFA World Cup: 2014, third place: 2006, 2010

UEFA European Championship runner-up: 2008; third place: 2012