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, rugby lea ...

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 but played the majority of his career with

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

and

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

. He also had a short stint with

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

Club career

Wörns was born in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

. 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 and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

at the young age of 17 years, 3 months and 30 days for Waldhof Mannheim 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 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 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 Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, he fouled

Davor Šuker Davor Šuker (; born 1 January 1968) is a Croatian Association football, football administrator and former professional player who played as a Striker (association football), striker. He served as the president of the Croatian Football Federatio ...

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: Doesn't 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 Association football, football manager and former player. He played for several prominent clubs in Europe including VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, AS Monaco FC, Monaco, Tottenham Hot ...

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

, 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 ( ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and ...

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, he made 512 appearances in the German Bundesliga. Club career Stein began his career in 1978 with Armi ...

(during the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, 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-tea ...

) 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 w ...

). 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 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 (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

: 1992–93 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 cup, super cups found in many other count ...

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 Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

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 or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

: runner-up

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

Individual * '' kicker''

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 Men's association football defenders German expatriate men's footballers German expatriate sportspeople in France German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers SV Waldhof Mannheim players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Paris Saint-Germain FC players Expatriate men's 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 men's footballers