Lukas Podolski: The ex-DFB, Bayern and Arsenal star is ending his career

Prince Poldi resigns

Last summer fairytale professional ends his career

After more than 20 years in professional football, it’s over for Lukas Podolski. The 2014 world champion is ending his career and is the last of a team that had a significant impact on German football.

Making the squad for a World Cup or European Championship without a single international match sounds impossible? For Lukas Podolski it wasn’t. Because that’s exactly how the national team career of the now 40-year-old began. Early in his career he was given the nickname “Prince Poldi” and it was precisely this prince who was nominated for the European Championship 2004 by German team boss Rudi Völler at the beginning of June 2004. Together with another young player: Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Before the tournament, a test match against the Hungarian national team, which was then coached by record national player Lothar Matthäus, ended in failure (0:2). Football from another time. Well, almost exactly 22 years to the day after his debut, Lukas Podolski announced the end of his active time in football.

Ultimately, it was a professional career that developed almost in step with German football over the past two decades. In 2004 he was still the young hope at the European Championships, but together with Bastian Schweinsteiger he could not prevent the team from being eliminated from the preliminary round.

Nevertheless, the duo of “Schweini” and “Poldi”, as they were called back then, can be compared with today’s hopefuls Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala. At least in terms of what it means for the fans. They were the young, cheeky and wild players who gave hope again to a reeling football nation – but it wasn’t until the 2006 home World Cup that they fully developed.

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With players like Jens Nowotny, Bernd Schneider, Jens Lehmann and Oliver Neuville at his side, Podolski sparked a new fan love for the national team. The team reached the semi-finals as outsiders, lost in extra time against eventual world champions Italy (0:2) and secured third place against Portugal (3:1). Now the last summer fairy tale hero has also hung up his football boots.

Former national coach Jogi Löw once said about the long-time Cologne professional: “He’s a bit like Cologne: entertaining, never boring, always somehow carrying a positive attitude towards life. That’s how he infected everyone else and pulled him along.”