Christian Wörns (born 10 May 1972) is a German former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who played as a defender. Wörns is widely considered one of the finest German defenders of his generation. He started his career with

Waldhof Mannheim SV Waldhof Mannheim is a multi-sports club, located in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg. It is most known for its association football team; however, there are also professional handball and table-tennis sides. The club today has a membership of over ...

but played the majority of his career with

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

and

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

. He also had a short stint with

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

Club career

Wörns was born in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

. He made his professional debut in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

at the young age of 17 years, 3 months and 30 days for

and at the time, was the fourth youngest debutant ever. He played 18 games in his first season and 34 the next in the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

. The next year, he transferred to

. Wörns quickly established himself as a defensive stalwart and anchored the strong Leverkusen defense for nearly a decade, together with sweeper

Jens Nowotny Jens Daniel Nowotny (born 11 January 1974) is a German former professional footballer who played as a defender. He played in nearly 300 official games with Bayer Leverkusen in one full decade, helping them reach the 2002 Champions League final ...

and Markus Happe. In 1998, he moved abroad to

in France. He failed to settle in and after one season transferred to

. He continued to play at Borussia Dortmund until he retired in 2008.

International career

Wörns represented his country on 66 occasions and did not score. *Euro 1992: receives a runners-up (silver) medal as a backup squad member *Euro 1996: after an injury hit season, Wörns fails to get nominated and misses being on the winning squad. *World Cup 1998: Considered the best player on the German squad, Wörns played well for much of the tournament. However, in the quarter-final match against

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

, he fouled

Davor Šuker Davor Šuker (; born 1 January 1968) is a Croatian football administrator and former footballer who played as a striker. He served as president of the Croatian Football Federation from 2012 to 2021. He began his footballing career in his hometo ...

in the 40th minute to stop a possible breakaway run on goal, and received a straight red card from Norwegian referee Rune Pedersen. Three unanswered goals were scored against Germany after his sending off, making him the scapegoat for his country's 0–3 loss. *World Cup 2002: Does not play due to injury, but the team finishes the tournament as runners-up (silver). *Euro 2004: Germany is eliminated in the group stage after two draws and a loss. *When Germany manager

Jürgen Klinsmann Jürgen Klinsmann (, born 30 July 1964) is a German professional football manager and former player. Klinsmann played for several prominent clubs in Europe including VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur, and Bayern Munich. He ...

announced the 22 players for a friendly with Italy in Florence, in the lead-up to the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

, 34-year-old Wörns was only a backup squad member. This prompted an outrageous interview by Wörns. Because he verbally attacked Klinsmann during the interview, the

German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge o ...

took disciplinary action against Wörns and banned from playing as an international. This was similar to what happened to

Uli Stein Ulrich "Uli" Stein (born 23 October 1954) is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Between 1978 and 1997, made 512 appearances in the German Bundesliga. He began his career in 1978 with Arminia Bielefeld. After tw ...

(during the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

) and Stefan Effenberg (during the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

). The dropping of Wörns from the national team was roundly panned in Germany, as Italy routed Germany 4–1 in that exhibition game, and Klinsmann bore the brunt of the criticism as the team was ranked only 22nd in the world entering the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Germany ended up finishing the tournament in third place (bronze).

Managerial career

Wörns became manager of

FC Augsburg II FC Augsburg II is the reserve team of the German association football club FC Augsburg from the city of Augsburg, Bavaria, whose first team play in the Bundesliga. The team, which has never played above the fourth tier, had its greatest succe ...

on 29 December 2015. He took over a team that won 16 points from 20 matches. His first match as manager came on 20 February 2016 in a 4–1 win against FC Ingolstadt 04 II. On 12 March 2016, Augsburg II lost 6–0 to

SpVgg Unterhaching Spielvereinigung Unterhaching () is a German sports club in Unterhaching, a semi-rural municipality on the southern outskirts of the Bavarian capital Munich. The club is widely known for playing in the first-division association football league ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial record

Honours

Bayer Leverkusen *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Paris Saint-Germain *

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries. His ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

Borussia Dortmund *

: 2001–02 *

: runner-up 2007–08 Germany *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

: runner-up

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

Individual * ''

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (sports magazine), in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the word used i ...

Team of the Season: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2001–02

References

External links

Leverkusen who's who
{{DEFAULTSORT:Worns, Christian 1972 births Living people Association football defenders German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in France German footballers Germany international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers SV Waldhof Mannheim players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players Expatriate footballers in France Borussia Dortmund players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup players UEFA Euro 1992 players UEFA Euro 2004 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Ligue 1 players Footballers from Mannheim West German footballers