Around the world with Lutz Pfannenstiel


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David Dodds looks at the extraordinary tale of Lutz Pfannenstiel, who represented 25 clubs and remains the only professional to have played in all 6 FIFA Confederations…

Earlier this month I wrote a profile of Lutz Pfannenstiel and his charity Global United F.C. which appeared on In Bed With Maradona For the sake of brevity I excluded a lot of biographical information from that article, but his story is so interesting that I’ve decided to construct a more comprehensive account of his footballing life from the remaining notes and research I have.

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Mercenary. Greedy. Financially-motivated. When you see a footballer who has played for twenty-five different clubs, you might be forgiven for thinking this. The game has no shortage of players who consider football a job, a way to pay the mortgage. But in the words of Lutz Pfannenstiel, the globetrotting German goalkeeper: “It’s nice to be rich. But it’s better to be wealthy in the head, wealthy in experience”. Continue reading

Has England’s Bundesliga Romance Gone Too Far?

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The False Nine’s David Dodds believes that the superiority of the Bundesliga’s financial model should be a point of discussion, not accepted wisdom…

As Pep Guardiola prepares to take over from Jupp Heynckes at Bayern Munich in the summer, Bayern’s fellow Munich club TSV 1860 Munich are also welcoming new coaching staff, or at least trying to. Continue reading