Oliver Kahn was born on 15 June 1969 in Karlsruhe Germany. He started to play football in 1976 in his native town. A year later, he was playing for Karlsruher SC's youth team. He worked his way up through the youth teams but never quite made it into the international youth competition. He subsequently made his Bundesliga debut in the autumn of 1987 and left an indelible mark from the outset. It took him only a short time to establish himself as one of the best last lines of defence in the Bundesliga. He was called to national team in October 1993 as reserve keeper to Bodo Illgner for FIFA World Cup 1994, but never made the starting line-up.
He was signed by Bayern Munich at the beginning of the 1994/95 season, won many domestic and intenational honors. The 2.5 million euros paid by the Bavarian club was a record fee for a goalkeeper at the time, and from the very beginning Kahn was made Bayern's first-choice. Although suffering a rupture of his cruciate ligament in the next season, he developed into a formidable goalkeeper.
He started his international debut on June 23 1995 against Switzerland. But he had to wait for a while to become Germany's number one in goal. He made do with being the reserve keeper at Euro 96 in England. After 1998 FIFA World Cup in France Andreas Köpke announced his retirement, and at last Khan became Germany first goalkeeper.
In 2002, he won the adidas Golden Ball for best player and the Yashin Award for top goalkeeper of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, after allowing only two(Republic of Ireland and Brazil) of the seven national sides to score against him. Kahn also captained the German team for the entire tournament. Despite being beaten only three times overall, he was widely blamed for losing the final after giving up a goal to Brazilian striker Ronaldo off a rebound. He also starred for his country at Euro 2000 and Euro 2004.
On July 8, 2006, Oliver Kahn announced his retirement from the German national team, after backstopping them to third place in the 2006 FIFA World Cup on a match against Portugal (Kahn's only cap during the event) with a great performance. As of 2006, he is the all time clean sheet leader in the history of the Bundesliga with 177. His next Bundesliga match will mark another significant milestone: his 500th appearance.
Kahn is a player obsessed by perfection, and is known to train fanatically. He is hyper-competitive and always demands 100% from himself and his teammates. On the pitch, he is a charismatic, dominant presence who leads his defense and intimidates the opposition. His reflexes are stellar, his control of the box is excellent, and he excels in one-on-one situations.
Due to his increasing age and personal problems, his game has gradually declined. He lost his status as the first choice goalie for the German national team and have been replaced by Jens Lehmann of Arsenal F.C. Kahn's hopes of playing the 2006 World Cup were crushed on April 7, 2006, when Klinsmann announced his decision to use Lehmann as Germany's goalkeeper in the tournament starting in June. Kahn decided to continue his national team career, despite being demoted to a backup position. Although unhappy about being the substitute, Kahn publicly praised Lehmann after the latter saved two penalty shots in the quarter-final shootout against Argentina.
After Germany was eliminated in the semi-finals by Italy, Kahn was given the start for the Third Place match. Kahn also captained the team in the absence of the injured Michael Ballack, and earned his last international appearance for Germany, defeating Portugal 3-1. After that he retired from national team, having earned 86 caps.
