Christian Ziege

Christian Ziege
Personal information
Date of birth	February 1, 1972 (1972-02-01) (age 37)
Place of birth	Berlin, Germany
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Left Midfielder / Defender
Club information
Current club	Borussia Mönchengladbach (Director of Football)
Youth clubs
1978–1981 1981–1985 1985–1990	FC Südstern 08 Berlin TSV Rudow Berlin FC Hertha 03 Zehlendorf
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1990–1997 1997–1999 1999–2000 2000–2001 2001–2004 2004–2005	Bayern Munich A.C. Milan Middlesbrough Liverpool Tottenham Hotspur Borussia Mönchengladbach	185 (35) 039 0(4) 029 0(6) 016 0(1) 047 0(7) 013 0(0)
National team
1991–1993 1993–2004	Germany U-21 Germany	012 0(3) 072 0(9)
Teams managed
2006–2007 2007–2008 2008	Bor. Mönchengladbach U-17 (Head Coach) Borussia Mönchengladbach (Director of Football) Borussia Mönchengladbach (Interim Coach) Borussia Mönchengladbach (Assistant Coach)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Christian Ziege (born February 1, 1972 in Berlin) is a former German football (soccer) defender and midfielder. With the German national team, Ziege won Euro 96. Ziege is currently head coach and formerly director of football at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Playing career

Club career

At club level, Ziege played for Bayern Munich (1990-97), AC Milan (1997-99) and Middlesbrough (1999-2000). In summer 2000 Liverpool F.C. made a £5.5m bid which exactly matched a get-out clause in Ziege's contract. Middlesbrough insisted they had received offers in excess of £8m for Ziege, but were forced contractually to allow Ziege to talk to Liverpool, who then signed him.^[1] He made his debut for Liverpool in a 3-2 home win over Manchester City on 9 September, 2000, replacing Steven Gerrard in the second half. Although the Anfield crowd saw flashes of Ziege's brilliance down the left flank during the season, a combination of knee injuries and the improving form of Jamie Carragher^[2], meant he was transferred to Tottenham Hotspur after one year and 32 appearances in all competitions.

On 14 March, 2002, Liverpool were fined £20,000 by The Football Association for making an illegal approach for Ziege, while the player himself was fined £10,000.^[3] However, by this time Ziege's injury problems were escalating, and by 2004 his contract was terminated by mutual consent so he could return to Germany.

Ziege returned to Germany with Borussia Mönchengladbach in June 2004,^[4] but announced his retirement in October 2005, having not played since the previous December due to a persistent ankle injury.^[5]

International career

Ziege was capped 72 times for Germany, scoring nine goals. Other than the Euro 96 win, he also played for his country at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups (during which he played the final game), as well as Euro 2000 (he was a member of the Euro 2004 squad, but didn't play).

Awards

Ziege won the Bundesliga title twice with Bayern and the Serie A title once with Milan. He also won the UEFA Cup with Bayern in 1996 and with Liverpool in 2001. With the club from the Merseyside, he also gained the 2001 League Cup. He is the only player to have played in the Milan, Munich, Merseyside, Tyne-Tees and North London derbies.

Managerial career

Following retirement from the game due to injury in October 2005, Ziege picked up his UEFA diploma for coaching. In 2006 he moved into coaching with his last professional club, Borussia Mönchengladbach, where he was named head coach of the club's Under-17 team, succeeding Thomas Schumacher. In 2006-07 the club's U17 team had won ten out of seventeen matches with Ziege in charge when, in March 2007, he was handed the role of Director of Football at the club, as the replacement for the outgoing Peter Pander.^[6] At the time of his appointment, with ten matches to go until the end of the season, Mönchengladbach were at the bottom of the Bundesliga, with five points between them and safety.

Career honours

Honours as player

Bayern Munich

Winner

• 1993-94 German Bundesliga
• 1995-96 UEFA Cup
• 1996-97 German Bundesliga
• 1997-98 Liga-Pokal

Runner up

• 1990-91 German Bundesliga
• 1992-93 German Bundesliga
• 1995-96 German Bundesliga

AC Milan

Winner

• 1998-99 Italian Serie A (Level 1)

Liverpool

Winner

• 2000-01 League Cup
• 2000-01 UEFA Cup

Tottenham Hotspur

Runner Up

• 2001-02 League Cup

Germany

Winner

• 1996 European Football Championship

Runner Up

• 2002 FIFA World Cup

References

• (English) Official website
• (English) Yahoo! sport
• (German) Borussia MG

External links

• Christian Ziege career stats at Soccerbase

Germany squad – UEFA Euro 1996 Winners (3rd title) 1 Köpke • 2 Reuter • 3 Bode • 4 Freund • 5 Helmer • 6 Sammer • 7 Möller • 8 Scholl • 9 Bobic • 10 Häßler • 11 Kuntz • 12 Kahn • 13 Basler • 14 Babbel • 15 Kohler • 16 Schneider • 17 Ziege • 18 Klinsmann • 19 Strunz • 20 Bierhoff • 21 Eilts • 22 Reck • 23 Todt • Coach: Vogts

Germany squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 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

Germany squad – UEFA Euro 2000 1 Kahn • 2 Babbel • 3 Rehmer • 4 Linke • 5 Bode • 6 Nowotny • 7 Scholl • 8 Häßler • 9 Kirsten • 10 Matthäus • 11 Rink • 12 Lehmann • 13 Ballack • 14 Hamann • 15 Wosz • 16 Jeremies • 17 Ziege • 18 Deisler • 19 Jancker • 20 Bierhoff • 21 Ramelow • 22 Butt • Coach: Ribbeck

Germany squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup Runners-up 1 Kahn • 2 Linke • 3 Rehmer • 4 Baumann • 5 Ramelow • 6 Ziege • 7 Neuville • 8 Hamann • 9 Jancker • 10 Ricken • 11 Klose • 12 Lehmann • 13 Ballack • 14 Asamoah • 15 Kehl • 16 Jeremies • 17 Bode • 18 Böhme • 19 Schneider • 20 Bierhoff • 21 Metzelder • 22 Frings • 23 Butt • Coach: Völler

Germany squad – UEFA Euro 2004 1 Kahn • 2 Hinkel • 3 Friedrich • 4 Wörns • 5 Nowotny • 6 Baumann • 7 Schweinsteiger • 8 Hamann • 9 Bobic • 10 Kurányi • 11 Klose • 12 Lehmann • 13 Ballack • 14 Brdaric • 15 Kehl • 16 Jeremies • 17 Ziege • 18 Ernst • 19 Schneider • 20 Podolski • 21 Lahm • 22 Frings • 23 Hildebrand • Coach: Völler