Many outstanding football players find that at some point in their soccer career, they make the transition from player to manager – as we have seen with the previous few articles we have published. Therefore, within this post we are going to look into the established career of Jurgen Klinsmann and how he coped with making the swap from the pitch to the side lines. We also look into his performance both as manager and player along with the number of club and individual awards he has acquired over the years.
Establishing His Soccer Career
Born in Goppingen 1964, Jurgen started his soccer career at only eight years old. This is where he started playing for TB Gingen, but after six months with the team he managed to score an outstanding 16 goals in a single match. He only played with TB Gingen for 2 years before he transferred to SC Geislingen at age 10. After four years with the squad his family relocated to Stuttgart but Jurgen continued playing for the team up until he was 16 years old. At this age he joined Stuttgarter Kickers and in two years’ time he then signed his first senior contract with the squad to play professionally with them. However, this did not take effect until 1982 as his parents wanted him to finish his baker apprenticeship within their family business.
During his first season with the Stuttgarter Kickers, Jurgen eventually became a regular in the first team. And during the 1983/84 season he scored a total of 19 goals for his team. But after this success he was recruited by the club’s first division rivals, VfB Stuttgart and within his first season with the team he netted 16 goals which made him the club’s top scorer, tying with Karl Allgower. One of his most impressive moves with the team was during the 1987/88 season where he made 19 goals which included an overhead kick during their match with Bayern Munich, and subsequently earnt himself the title of the Bundesliga top scorer.
But with this success came in