Jürgen Klinsmann

Jürgen Klinsmann (ˈjʏʁɡn̩ ˈkliːnsˌman, born 30 July 1964) is a German football manager, pundit and former player. As a player, Klinsmann played for several prominent clubs in Europe and was part of the West German team that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the unified German team that won the 1996 UEFA European Championship. One of Germany's premier strikers during the 1990s, he scored in all six major international tournaments he participated in, from Euro 1988 to the 1998 World Cup. In 1995, he came in third in the FIFA World Player of the Year award; in 2004 he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the "125 Greatest Living Footballers". Klinsmann managed the German national team to a third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup. On 12 July 2006, he officially announced that he would step down as Germany's coach after two years in charge and be replaced by assistant coach Joachim Löw. He took over as coach of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich in July 2008 when Ottmar Hitzfeld stepped down. On 27 April 2009, he was released early, even though he had won five of the previous seven league games and was only three points behind league leader VfL Wolfsburg. During the jointly initiated reforms at Bayern, a severe clash of opinions emerged between coach and club management. On 29 July 2011, the U.S. Soccer Federation named Klinsmann the coach of the United States men's national team. In 2013 he won the CONCACAF Gold Cup with the United States and was named CONCACAF Coach of the Year 2013. He led the United States team to the round of 16 of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. On 3 November 2016, he became the fifth male and seventh person to become the German national soccer team's honorary captain. On 21 November 2016, Klinsmann was fired as head coach of the United States national team, after losing to Mexico and Costa Rica in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.