1964, USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann was born. Klinsmann was perhaps one of the greatest european strikers over the past 20 years, scoring goals at the top levels of world football which included the premier league and the world cup. Klinsmann started his career at Stuttgarter Kickers and in his debut season, at 17 years old, had already established himself as a first team player. He then moved to Stuttgart and in his first season was the clubs joint top scorer. Klinsmann has played for some great clubs in his long career, with spells at Inter Milan, AS Monaco, Tottenham and Bayern Munich before retiring from playing. His club career stats stand thus: Appearances: 506 Goals: 227 He was instrumental in the German national side, playing in every tournament between 1988 and 1998. Klinsmann is Germany's 3rd all time top scorer after scoring 47 goals from 108 caps. After playing Klinsmann went into managing and started at the top with Germany. Klinsmann qualified for the 2006 world cup and eventually lead them to a 3rd place finish overall after beating Portugal 3-1 in the 3rd place play off. Kilnsmann left Germany and his next role would see him as the Bayern Munich boss in 2008. However, despite doing relatively well in europe and in the league, Klinsmann was removed from his position with 5 games left after a difference of opinion with the board. Klinsmann was appointed the USA coach yesterday after Bob Bradley was sacked. Klinsmann has won over 10 honours as a player and will forever remain one of Germanys greatest ever players. [video=youtube;LmtqsbwTj_k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmtqsbwTj_k[/video]
Rooney, Gerrard and Owen are 3 off the top of my head who dive yet nobody dislikes them for it because they're English. I hate the Germans but you have to respect Klinsmanns ability. He was a great player and not the only one to take a dive.
Eh? Rooney's despised for his theatricals and quite a few of the current England squad get very little respect because of their unsporting antics.
Be it for his unsporting behaviour, including diving or swearing, he's still not a universally popular English player because of it, just like the other players.
Gerrard is the only one from that list you could argue is guilty of diving. Owen is a top pro. The argument that we're biased towards English players is absurd, the media absolutely ****ing love to jump on English players' backs, Rooney in particular, and feed us with all the drivel about how awful he is when he's our best player.
Rooney is not Englands best player at all. He underperforms every time he wears the shirt. Owen used to be guilty of simulation back in his Liverpool and Madrid days, but no longer does anymore.
This is the typical media bollocks I speak of. Any other country would be proud of their best players and treat them as heroes.
You can't say he's Englands best player when he never performs as well as he does for Utd. He struggles to hit a barn door with a banjo for England and has done for the past couple of years. For England, he's not one of your better players. I rate Gerrard far more.
Well no. He failed to score in nearly a year of international football. That's along the lines of Emile Heskey...
I think it's questionable to judge a striker solely on goals scored, but to judge someone who doesn't even play as a striker on that criterion is just daft.
Well he's supposedly the spear head of Englands attack and he rarely scores. I cba to argue this much more. The facts show that Rooney doesn't really score/perform for the international team so he's not your best player. You may rate him as it then fine, I disagree. What about them? He didn't score that many did he.
Rooney's scored 26 goals in 70 games for England, not quite as good as Charlton, Lineker or Owen, but none too shabby all the same.