Lukas Podolski

Lukas Josef Podolski (born Łukasz Józef Podolski,, on 4 June 1985) is a German professional footballer who plays as a forward or attacking midfielder for Ekstraklasa club Górnik Zabrze.

He is known for his powerful and accurate left foot, explosive shooting, technique and probing attacks from the left side.

It was at that time the second fastest international goal in history, second only to San Marino's Davide Gualtieri's 8.3-second strike against England in 1993.

Born in Gliwice, Poland, Podolski joined 1. FC Köln in 1995 where he made it into the first team in 2003 resulting in 81 appearances for the club before moving to Bayern Munich.

Podolski was eligible to play for both Germany, (due to his father being an ethnic German), and Poland; and he was open to playing for the Polish team but was rejected by the then Polish coach Paweł Janas in 2003, having already appeared for Germany at youth level.

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 22 November 2003.

After making his first appearance for the senior team in 2004, Podolski enjoyed great success with the Germany national team.

Though his call up to the German Euro 2004 squad brought along interest from several top clubs, Podolski stayed at Köln to help the club gain promotion in the 2004–05 season.

With 24 goals, Podolski advanced to become the league's best scorer.

Somewhat unusually, Podolski remained part of the Germany squad, even though he did not play in the national top-tier league.

After Köln were promoted, the pressure was on Podolski to keep the club in the Bundesliga practically singlehandedly.

Podolski managed to score 12 goals in the 2005–06 season, but eventually, Köln were relegated again.

It became clear that Podolski would not stay again to push them through the 2006–07 season—even more so, as Podolski was becoming an integral part of the national team.

In 2006, clubs such as Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, and Real Madrid manifested their interest in Podolski, even though he had a contract with 1. FC Köln through 2007.

On 1 June 2006, Podolski announced that a transfer agreement had been reached with Bayern Munich, allowing him to join the Bavarian side for the 2006–07 season.

Financial details of the deal were not immediately available, but the transfer fee was speculated to be around €.

He made his Bundesliga debut for Bayern on 11 August 2006, coming on as a substitute in the 88th minute of a 2–0 victory against Borussia Dortmund.

On 9 September 2006, he came on as a second-half substitute in a DFB-Pokal game versus FC St. Pauli.

Only 26 seconds after the second half started, he scored the equaliser, levelling the match at 1–1.

On 14 October 2006, with his first Bundesliga goal for Bayern, Podolski helped to secure the club's 4–2 win over Hertha BSC.

On 26 October 2006, Podolski suffered a serious injury to his right ankle joint caused by teammate, Mark van Bommel, during a training session.

Consequently, Podolski missed more than five match weeks.

He returned from this injury and scored against Alemannia Aachen.

After Bayern bought in Italian striker Luca Toni in 2007, Podolski received less playing time due to coach Ottmar Hitzfeld's preference to partner Miroslav Klose and Toni together instead.

However, Bayern ended the 2007–08 season by winning a league and cup double, giving Podolski the first major silverware of his career.

With Bayern, Podolski won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double in 2008.

Podolski returned to 1.

FC Köln in 2009.

Even though Köln failed to avoid a drop to the 2nd 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 until Florian Wirtz overtook the record in 2021.

He later signed for Premier League club Arsenal in 2012, with whom he won the FA Cup in 2014.

On 29 May 2013, Podolski scored the fastest goal in Germany national team history, after just nine seconds of the 4–2 friendly win over Ecuador.

He was part of the squad in seven major tournaments, winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

He is the third most-capped player in German history, with 130 caps, and the third-highest goalscorer in German history, having scored 49 times.

He then moved on loan to Serie A club Inter Milan in January 2015, before signing six months later for Galatasaray where he also won the Turkish Cup of 2016.

Podolski retired from international football on 22 March 2017 after scoring the winner in a friendly against England.

Podolski began playing football at the age of six in the youth team of FC 07 Bergheim, where he played until he joined 1. FC Köln at the age of ten.

It was there that Podolski's talents were first noticed.