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#2 Oliver Kahn Germany and Bayern Munich
His fans called him Der Titan and Vol-Kahn-o. True to those names, Oliver Kahn at times looked like he had fire for blood and steel for nerves as he led Bayern Munich and Germany with the sort of courage, determination and skill that would have made Ares watch on in envy from Olympus. With the reflexes of a tensed up cat and the overpowering presence of a silver back, Kahn utterly dominated his penalty box for the best part of a decade and a half.
Kahn’s finest moment in Bayern colours came in 2001 when, after keeping Bayern level at 1-1 with a ‘man of the match’ performance against a very talented and very attack minded Valencia, he pulled off a truly remarkable three penalty saves in the ensuing shootout to help Bayern lift the Champions League for the first time since their remarkable run in the mid ‘70s. But the moment that stood out for me was the sight of Kahn walking up to console a dejected Santiago Canizares after the trauma of the shootout – showed the true character of the great man.
He did even better for Die Mannschaft a year later, when he almost single-handedly dragged a rather mediocre Germany to the World Cup final. Along the way he put in a run of barely believable performances, stopping everything that came his way as he stood tall in the German goal. Sadly, and as if to underline the sado-masochist nature of the profession of goalkeeping itself, it was the magnificent Kahn’s one mistake of the tournament that the great Ronaldo (the original) capitalized on to open the scoring for the Brazilians in the final.
But even in tragedy Kahn shone, coming up with a series of wonderful saves to try and keep Germany in the game which they ultimately lost 2-0. For his braveheart performances throughout the tournament he was given the Golden Ball for best player at the World Cup – the first and only goalkeeper to have received the honour. That year, he lost out at the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year Awards to Ronaldo. Arguably though, Kahn’s influence on his teams had been the greater.
Injury, personal problems and possible depression soon led to a fall from the dizzying peaks of form he had hit upon, and he would never again be the keeper he once was.
Select Individual honours – IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper (’99, ’00, ’01, ’02), Yashin award (’02), FIFA World Cup golden ball (’02), UEFA Goalkeeper of the year (’99, ’00, ’01, ’02), German Footballer of the year (’00, ‘01), 3rd in the Ballon D’Or (’01, ’02), 7 time winner of the Bundesliga keeper of the year award.
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