The German football team is often compared with a perfectly tuned mechanism: clear interaction between players of all lines, thoughtful tactics to the smallest detail, excellent functional preparation and coherence, psychological stamina and belief in victory - all this ensures success for German football players. In many respects, the well-known pedantry and scrupulousness in everything inherent in the Germans guarantee the achievement of any goal. One of those outstanding athletes who brought more than one trophy to the main football squad of German soil was Oliver Bierhoff, whose biography will be considered in this article.
Birth and first steps in sports
The legendary football player was born on the first day of May 1968 in a city called Karlsruhe. Oliver Bierhoff began his football career in the children's teams of Uerdingen and Essen. Already during this period, the coaches noted his tremendous ability to work and physical strength, but he still did not shine with obvious successes and was not considered too promising a football player. However, fate has prepared for him a great future ...
Start
In the 1980s, Oliver Bierhoff was not the one about whom it would be safe to say that he would become a legendary person. Some of his well-wishers generally told him that nothing shines on him in the international arena and he is an absolute loser.
For the first four seasons in the Bundesliga, the striker scored just 10 goals in 73 games against his opponents. Of course, this is extremely small for the striker at such a high level. Therefore, it was quite logical then that he was associated with such an extremely unpleasant word as “hopelessness”. This state of affairs led to the fact that the German ended up in Austria, which was rather disrespectable from a football point of view, in the unattractive Salzburg team. It was in this club that the football player was able to fully realize: in 32 fights, he scored 23 goals. Such a success was immediately noticed in football Europe, and he received an invitation to Milan.
Moving to the Apennines
It’s 1991, and the Germans in Italy are very revered as they are reigning world champions. It goes without saying that this situation turned out to be in Oliver’s hands, and he ends up at Inter, the owner of which bought the scorer for only 170 thousand dollars and immediately leased it to the little-known Ascoli. And all because in the club in Milan then the main violin was Klintzmann. Ahead was a thorny and difficult path ...
Period of failure
Rent in a provincial club, as Oliver Bierhoff himself says, was an extremely unfortunate period in his life, full of all sorts of hardships and trials. In 1992, the team flies out of the first league, and the president tells the German that he is no longer needed and can be free. However, Oliver is not at all the person who gives up, and he decides to continue training with the team, for which he was ultimately rewarded. During this period, the head coach changes, and Birhoff gets a place at the base, after some time becoming the top scorer. But this still did not save the club from relegation to the lower division, and the player was forced to look for a new team.
Games for Udinese
In this football squad, Oliver Bierhoff revealed himself as a striker as much as possible and began to score a lot and often, which quite logically entailed the success of the team. She slowly began to break into the elite of Italian football. Consistently high-quality performances at a high level led to the fact that the Germans were invited to join the national team, which at that time was led by the world-famous Bertie Vogts.
The debut in the main team of Germany for Birhoff was more than successful: the Germans won with a score of 2: 1. And in the next game, Oliver made a double.
Extravaganza at Euro 96
Oliver Bierhoff, whose photo is shown below, became the savior for the German team at the 1996 European Championship. Let's take a closer look at this episode of his career.
All fights before the final match, Oliver spent in reserve. However, in the final battle with the Czechs he was given a great chance to show his skills. It’s hard to say if Vogts would have put him into the game if it weren’t for the full infirmary with injured players. And I must say that the newcomer fully justified the trust placed in him by literally returning the German team from the other side.
At the 69th minute, Oliver entered the field, replacing the wonderful techie and the ingenious handler Mehmet Scholl. At that time, his team was losing 0-1. The tall Birhoff came to the court, because his ability to play his head and insert his foot in time gave the desired result.
Oliver spent only a few minutes on the field and scored such a desired ball, expected by many fans. As a result, the teams begin to play exhausting, from a physical point of view, overtime.
We immediately note that the tournament in England for the first time in history was held with the rule of the "golden ball".
In the 5th minute of the extra time, Oliver Bierhoff (Bertie Vogts' wife, by the way, had a significant influence not on her husband when selecting players for the Euro) takes the ball, standing with his back to the opponent’s goal and processes it, delivering a lightning and whipping blow from under the defender. As a result, the Czech goalkeeper reacts rather late to the attack, and the ball slowly rolls into the goal, ricocheting from his hands. Thus, the victory for Germany - 2: 1.
Player Retirement
In early 2002, Bierhoff ends up at Monaco. In the same year, in the summer, he performs at the World Cup, where he scores a goal against the Saudi team. In the final match, the Germans were inferior to the Brazilians, and this game was the last for Oliver for the national team. In total, he spent 70 matches for the main team of German land and scored 37 goals. This cannot be said to be an impressive result, but many of his goals were crucial and decisive.
After some time, he again ends up in Italy, where he is trying to cling to the Chievo. We must pay tribute to the player, because it was his experience and ability that allowed the little-known team to take the seventh line of Serie A at the end of the season. Having scored seven goals in 35 matches in a season, the football player ends his career.
The rating of the striker, according to many authoritative publications, is as follows: in the German national team he occupies the 60th position in its history, among all the attackers - 408th position.
Personal life
Today, Oliver Bierhoff and Clara Shalanzi are a happy married couple. At one time, the wife of Olya met with Drazen Petrovich, but in the end she married our hero. In 2010, a terrible tragedy occurred in their family: the wife of Oliver had a miscarriage in the eighth month of pregnancy. Now the couple is doing well. The former athlete has three daughters. The eldest was born in 2007.
New life
Starting July 29, 2004, Oliver Bierhoff, whose children did not follow in his footsteps, becomes the sports manager of the German national team. By the way, this post was invented specifically for him. In addition, a former football player comments on the matches of the Champions League. Also, the legendary athlete managed to get an economic education, which he does not regret a single drop of and successfully applies sometimes in practice.