Lukas Podolski

Born in the industrial town of Gliwice, in Upper Silesia, Poland, Podolski is one of two top German football players with Silesian roots, the other one being Miroslav Klose. His father Waldemar Podolski was also a professional football player playing for a number of Polish clubs, while his mother played handball for So?nica Gliwice. In 1987, when Lukas Podolski was two years old, his parents settled from People's Republic of Poland to West Germany. Podolski grew up in Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, and later in Pulheim, both near Cologne.

National Team Career

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 V�ller's Germany on 6 June2004 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, Hern�n Crespo, and FIFA World Cup MVP (winner of the Golden Ball) Zinedine Zidane. Podolski was awarded the Best Young Player title for his performance in the tournament.

On September 6, 2006, Podolski netted 4 goals in a Euro 2008San Marino, which made him only the third German after Gerd M�ller 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 scoring 7 goals in the tournament, second only to David Healy of Northern ireland with 9 goals, despite leading the leaderboards for a long time.

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It was at 1. FC K�ln where Podolski's talents were first noticed. In 2003, at the age of 18, Podolski was still part of the club's youth side. At this time the club found itself in dire straits battling to avoid relegation from the Bundesliga. First team boss Marcel Koller, working on a shoestring budget, invited Podolski to train with the senior players and he made his top flight debut shortly afterwards on November 22, 2003. Even though Cologne failed to avoid a drop to the 2nd German division, Podolski had shown what he could do, scoring 10 goals in his first 19 senior appearances. This was the best tally by an 18 year old in the history of the Bundesliga.

Podolski continued to stay with the club despite relegation and was instrumental in ensuring a quick return to the top flight, scoring 24 goals in the process.

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Honors

On July 6, 2006, Podolski was announced as the first Gillette Best Young Player award winner. Runner-up Cristiano Ronaldo had been favored to win the award, but concerns about his fair play counted against him. Holger Osieck, head of the FIFA Technical Study Group that selected the winner, praised Podolski as "a key element in Germany's attack."