Jürgen Klinsmann is the former German international who is the current manager of the United States national football team. He is best known for having represented the likes of Inter Milan, Stuttgart, Tottenham, and Bayern Munich during his playing career. With regard to the managerial career, Klinsmann is best known for having led Germany to the third position in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He took over his current position as the United States national football team manager in 2011.
Klinsmann has played for various youth teams before starting his career professionally, but it was his move to the Stuttgarter Kickers that changed his career. After joining the youth academy of Stuttgarter Kickers in 1978, Klinsmann soon made his debut for the club in 1981. He spent only two seasons before moving to Stuttgart in 1994. It was the peak of his career and he made 155 appearances for Stuttgart before moving to Italian side Inter Milan in the summer of 1989. Even though he spent only three seasons with Inter Milan, he made more than 95 appearances and was regarded as one of the important players for the club during that time.
He also won his first major trophy – the UEFA Cup – with Inter Milan, a feat that he repeated a few years later with Bayern Munich. In 1992, Klinsmann moved to France team Monaco and spent two seasons with them. Even though this spell was not successful as the Inter Milan career in terms of the trophies, Klinsmann helped Monaco finish in the second place. In 1994, he moved to English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, although he spent only one season with the club. He was signed for just £2 million, but he left early despite having one year left on his contract. The final years of his playing career was spent playing for the likes of Bayern Munich and Orange County Blue Star in the United States.
He has also made 108 international appearances for Germany from 1987 to 1998.
After bringing a halt to his playing career, Klinsmann embarked on a journey to become a manager. He became the manager of the German national team in 2004 ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Germany was struggling for a direction at that time and Klinsmann received a lot of praise for successfully staging a great World Cup from hosts Germany, who finished in the third position. Klinsmann stepped down from his position after the World Cup and went on to manage Bayern Munich. He took over Bayern Munich in 2008, but could not repeat the magic that he achieved with the German national team.
He left Bayern Munich by mutual consent in 2009 after failing to achieve the team’s targets that season. In 2011, it was announced that Klinsmann would be taking over from Bob Bradley as the coach of the United States national football team.
Jürgen Klinsmann won the FIFA World Cup and the European championship with Germany, while he was also voted as the German Footballer of the Year in 1994.