Every Monday, FIFA spotlights a World Cup record. Here, we focus on the only goalkeeper to have won the adidas Golden Ball.
Oliver Hahn was never really able to shake Deuter Muller in their battle to be Germany’s starting goalkeeper. When he got the chance, he lasted barely 20 minutes, struck down with a left shoulder injury after facing the feared ‘twin shot.’ Luckily, the real-life Oliver Kahn fared much better on Japanese soil.
Few players, and even fewer keepers, are as revered in Japan as Germany’s former long-serving No1 is. Thus it was that Kahn – as Hahn – came to feature in the famed Japanese comic series Captain Tsubasa. He also starred in Japanese television commercials featuring everything from banks to car wax.
Curiously, German pop band Die Prinzen also recently re-released their 2007 classic Olli Kahn with Japanese lyrics.
He eats good food, His diet is sound, His stomach is flat and the ball is round, Even when the pitch is heated, Olli never acts conceited, When he’s annoyed then strike alarm, ‘Cause his name is Olli Kahn.
It’s fair to say that the Leipzig lyricists won’t be bothering the Pulitzer Prize panel anytime soon, unlike the Karlsruhe native, who was a serial award collector. Among all the trophies, plaques, honours and accolades, one stands alone for its singularity.
One that consummated the love affair between Kahn and Japan, as the German won the adidas Golden Ball at the FIFA World Cup™ they co-hosted with Korea Republic in 2002. To this day, Kahn remains the only goalkeeper to have won the award bestowed upon the tournament’s most outstanding individual player.
Beaten in the final Germany may have been, and beaten partly due to a Kahn error, but if not for the towering earlier efforts of ‘Der Titan’ they may not have even reached the Yokohama decider.
Across group-stage stops in Sapporo, Ibaraki and Shizuoka, Kahn made a string of saves from all angles and with multiple body parts, hands, fingers, hips, chest, stomach and feet all getting a workout as Germany conceded just the once.
That goal, a stoppage-time Robbie Keane strike for Republic of Ireland, would be the only one that Kahn would allow prior to the final.
Having started, with a booming punt, the move that sunk Paraguay in the last 16, the Vol-Kahn-o then repeatedly thwarted USA starlet Landon Donovan in the quarters before doing the same to another 20-year-old, Korea’s Lee Chunsoo, in the semis.
Brazil’s triple R threat would be the toughest assignment of Germany’s Asian assessment and for an hour, Kahn stood tall, swooped low and swept well to deny Ronaldinho, Rivaldo and Ronaldo in the final.
Early in the second half, he would damage a finger, diving to save a Gilberto Silva header. A quarter of an hour later, the nation’s hopes were also impaired. A rasping drive from Rivaldo was spilled by a wounded Kahn straight to Ronaldo, who swept home past the prone custodian.
That same pair were involved in Brazil’s second that saw the Seleção claim a fifth star, while Germany departed as bridesmaids for the fourth time.
Several members of that Germany squad remain household names in Japan, and assistant coach Michael Skibbe is currently in the midst of a wildly successful spell at the helm of J.League outfit Sanfrecce Hiroshima, but few have the eternal pull that Kahn does.
Having turned 33 on the day of the Paraguay win, it was a remarkable tournament. Through more than 600 minutes, just the one goal conceded, then one that turned the fate of two nations.
A compilation of saves, stops and moments across a summer that earned Oliver Kahn the greatest individual accolade on the sport’s grandest stage. Earned a place too in Japanese hearts and German songbooks.
Out on the field he shows real flair, At half-time he combs his hair, Even some days when he wins, No-one is perfect, He lets one in, He knocks the fans out with his charm, His name is Olli Kahn.
