Philipp Lahm

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.

Philipp Lahm (born 11 November 1983) is a German former professional footballer who played as a 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 RC Lens in the group stage of the 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 season 2003–04 against Hansa Rostock as he came in as a substitute left back in the 76th minute for midfielder Silvio Meissner.

On 29 September 2003, Lahm made his first Champions League appearance as a starter against Manchester United.

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.

On 3 April 2004, he scored his first ever Bundesliga goal in a 5–1 away win for Stuttgart against VfL Wolfsburg.

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 FC 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 FC 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.

Lahm 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.

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.

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 FC Barcelona and the transfer seemed to be almost a done deal.

However, on 16 May 2008 FC Bayern signed a new contract with Lahm.

Lahm had his most prolific goalscoring season in 2008–09, 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.

Back in May 2008 Lahm had turned down lucrative offers from Manchester United and F.C. Barcelona to stay with Bayern as club president Uli Hoeneß promised to build a team that could challenge in Europe.

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.

His new contract kept him in Munich through 20 June 2012.

Considered by many to be one of the greatest full-backs of all time, Lahm was the longtime captain of Bayern Munich, having led them to numerous honours including the 2013 UEFA Champions League as part of the Treble.

He is also a former captain of his national team, which he led to win the 2014 FIFA World Cup, before retiring from international football.