Michael Tarnat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Tarnat (born October 27, 1969 in Hilden) is a German football player. He is a left-footed full-back who has also played wingback and defensive midfield. His nickname is "Tanne", meaning "fir" in English.

[edit] Career

Tarnat started to play football at the club SV Hilden-Nord before starting his professional career in 1991 when he joined MSV Duisburg. He made his Bundesliga debut on August 2, 1991 in Duisburg's home match against VfB Stuttgart and went on to make a total of 58 appearances for the club in the league in the following two seasons, also scoring his first Bundesliga goal in Duisburg's 1-1 draw away against VfB Leipzig on August 27, 1993. He moved to Karlsruher SC in the summer of 1994 and grew into one of the team's stars, alongside Thomas Häßler and Thorsten Fink. His trademark was his super-hard left-footed shot, which made him one of the best free-kick takers of his Bundesliga generation. In three seasons with KSC, Tarnat made a total of 81 Bundesliga appearances and scored seven goals for the club in the league. In 1996, he was called up into the German national team for the first time and made his international debut in Germany's 1998 World Cup qualifier against Armenia on October 9, 1996.

In 1997, he got his big break when Bayern Munich bought him along with Fink. He played well on his left flank, good enough to give star left full-back Bixente Lizarazu almost a full season on the bench. In the following seasons, trainer Ottmar Hitzfeld often play them both, giving Bayern one of the best left flanks in Europe.

Tarnat's Bayern career was extremely successful. He was German champion in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003, won the German Cup in 1998, 2000 and 2003 and the UEFA Champions League in 2001. He was also a regular in the German national team at the 1998 World Cup finals in France, appearing in four out of five matches played by the team at the tournament before they were surprisingly eliminated by Croatia in the quarterfinals. In the following year, he played in the notorious 1999 UEFA Champions League Final in which Bayern lost 2-1 to Manchester United with two stoppage-time goals.

In the late years, however, Tarnat became somewhat injury-prone, which effectively ended his international career in 1998 after 19 caps and caused Bayern to bench him often. In six seasons of playing for Bayern, Tarnat made a total of 122 Bundesliga appearances and scored eight goals for the club in the league. He made a move to Manchester City in 2003, making a total of 32 Premier League appearances and scoring three goals for the club in the league before returning to Germany by signing with Hannover 96 a year later, where he has been playing ever since. Even at advanced age, Tarnat is still a respected full-back. He has been a regular in the Hannover 96 team from the beginning and made a total of 53 Bundesliga appearances for the club so far, also scoring six goals in the league.

[edit] Trivia

In Bayern Munich's away match against Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1999-2000 Bundesliga season, Tarnat memorably played half an hour in the second half as a goalkeeper. In the match, Oliver Kahn was forced to leave the pitch after sustaining an injury in collision with teammate Samuel Kuffour and his replacement Bernd Dreher was also injured after he spent less than ten minutes on the pitch, allowing Tarnat to come off the bench to take his place between the sticks. Very remarkably, Bayern had trailed 0-1, but scored the equaliser only two minutes after Tarnat entered the match and eventually managed to win 2-1 after Kuffour scored the winning goal in the 80th minute.

Hannover 96 - Current Squad
1 Enke | 2 Vinícius | 3 Zuraw | 4 Troest | 5 Andersson | 6 Cherundolo | 7 Jendrišek | 8 Lala | 9 Þorvaldsson | 10 Bruggink | 11 Huszti | 13 Brdaric | 14 Balitsch | 16 Hashemian | 18 Tarnat | 19 Nagy | 20 Golz | 22 Fahrenhorst | 23 Yankov | 24 Štajner | 25 Jurić | 26 Rosenthal | 27 Schröter | 28 Hahne | 30 Jensen | 31 Montabell | 32 Marheineke | 35 Halfar | 36 Dietwald

	Germany squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Köpke | 2 Wörns | 3 Heinrich | 4 Kohler | 5 Helmer | 6 Thon | 7 Möller | 8 Matthäus | 9 Kirsten | 10 Häßler | 11 Marschall | 12 Kahn | 13 Jeremies | 14 Babbel | 15 Freund | 16 Hamann | 17 Ziege | 18 Klinsmann | 19 Reuter | 20 Bierhoff | 21 Tarnat | 22 Lehmann | Coach: Vogts