Christian Wörns

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Christian Wörns (born on May 10, 1972 in Mannheim) is a professional German footballer, currently playing for Borussia Dortmund.

[edit] Career

Wörns debuted at the tender age of 17 years, 3 months and 30 days for Waldhof Mannheim and was the fourth youngest debutant ever. The next year, he transferred to Bayer Leverkusen, quickly established himself as a defensive stalwart and anchored the strong Leverkusen defense for nearly a decade, together with Jens Nowotny and Markus Happe.

In 1998, he changed to Paris Saint-Germain FC, but there, he failed to achieve success and transferred to Borussia Dortmund the next year, where he has been playing ever since.

[edit] Successes

• German champion 2002
• German Cup 1993

[edit] International career

Wörns represented his country on 66 occasions and is yet to score. Striking is the fact that Wörns, considered one of the finest German defenders of his generation, has suffered a long string of professional failures in the German squad.

• Euro 1996: after an absolutely dismal 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 plays a stellar tourney until he fouls Davor Šuker in the quarter final match against Croatia to stop a breakaway run on goal. He is sent off and three unanswered goals are scored against Germany after his red card, making him the scapegoat for his country's 0-3 loss.
• World Cup 2002: Wörns injures himself at the last moment, nonetheless Germany reaches the final.
• Euro Cup 2004: Despite his strong performances against Holland and Latvia, he could not prevent Germany from embarrasingly crashing out in the intitial group stage.
• When manager Jürgen Klinsmann announced the 22 players for the 2006 FIFA World Cup squad, Wörns was only a backup squad member. This promped an outrageous interview by Wörns. Due to the fact that he verbally attacked Klinsmann during the interview the German Football Association took disciplinary action against Wörns: sacking him as an international. This was similar to what happened to Uli Stein (during the 1986 FIFA World Cup) and Stefan Effenberg (during the 1994 FIFA World Cup).

[edit] Trivia

• Wörns has a large birthmark on his neck.
• Soon after the initial broadcasting, March 5, 1995, of The Simpsons episode A Star is Burns, Wörns adopted the nickname Woo-urns, to remind him of the classic Boo-urns line.

[edit] External links

• Leverkusen who's who

v • d • e Germany squad - UEFA Euro 1992 Runners-up 1 Illgner • 2 Reuter • 3 Brehme • 4 Kohler • 5 Binz • 6 Buchwald • 7 Möller • 8 Häßler • 9 Völler • 10 Doll • 11 Riedle • 12 Köpke • 13 Thom • 14 Helmer • 15 Frontzeck • 16 Sammer • 17 Effenberg • 18 Klinsmann • 19 Schulz • 20 Wörns • Coach: Vogts

v • d • e 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

v • d • e Germany squad - UEFA Euro 2004 1 Kahn • 2 Hinkel • 3 Friedrich • 4 Wörns • 5 Nowotny • 6 Baumann • 7 Schweinsteiger • 8 Hamann • 9 Bobic • 10 Kuranyi • 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

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