Twenty years ago, Oliver Kahn’s classic goalkeeping mistake in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Real Madrid was the starting signal for a slow and ultimately tragic end to a great goalkeeper’s career. But no one could have guessed that back then, in March 2004.
“Kahn blackout prevents Bayern victory!” The big headline after a memorable evening in Munich’s Olympic Stadium twenty years ago hurt the record champions – and one in particular: Oliver Kahn. Bayern had played well for most of the game in the Champions League round of 16 against Real Madrid and now they stood there after the final whistle and didn’t really know what had happened to them in the 83rd minute.
The next morning the “Kicker” wrote under the headline “Roberto Carlos dupes Kahn”: “After a great performance, FC Bayern not only gave away the victory, but even an excellent starting position for the second leg. After a catastrophic mistake by Kahn, this secured itself Real’s star ensemble, which was inferior in all respects, achieved a very happy draw.” But what exactly had happened? Real’s Roberto Carlos shot a free kick from a good 30 meters flat to the right corner. Actually no problem for a goalkeeper. But Kahn let the ball roll under his body into the goal. A classic blackout!
Kahn strives for strength and composure
What no one knew at the time, however, was that the story was much more tragic than anyone could have imagined in those unfortunate seconds. Because it was supposed to be the starting signal for a slow and ultimately tragic end to a great career for the 2002 World Cup runner-up goalkeeper in Japan and South Korea. Because one can anticipate: Bayern failed to reach the quarter-finals two weeks later in Madrid. The late equalizer to make the final score 1-1 in the first leg obviously weighed too heavily on the shoulders of the already ailing Bayern professionals. Zinédine Zidane’s 1-0 win in the first half was enough for Real to advance. And Oliver Kahn? He tried to appear strong and calm on the outside (“I’m not 20 anymore. After two days it was over”), but he didn’t succeed very well. Back then, the national goalkeeper was in the headlines almost every day with changing stories.
On the one hand, there was his challenger in the national team, Jens Lehmann, who had been building up more and more public pressure since the summer of 2003 and said things in the media that had a long-lasting impact: “I don’t feel the respect I deserve in Germany. My problem is that I “I’m only number two in the national team, even though I think I should play. At the moment I’m better than Kahn.” And on the other hand, there were the stories about his private life.
After separating from his wife, Kahn began a relationship with a discotheque acquaintance who naturally provided plenty of fodder for the tabloid press. At one point, the Bayern goalkeeper rightly complained that the reporting on his private life was “grotesque”. The “Bild” newspaper hypocritically asked at the time: “Is Olli Kahn breaking?” Bavaria’s CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was also angry and – appealing to the national welfare – tried to have a de-escalating effect: “If this continues, he will be systematically driven out of the country. Oliver Kahn is a great fighter. But he is also only human , which has a sensitive point. He, one of the few hopefuls for the 2006 World Cup, is being driven away slowly but surely.” What Rummenigge didn’t know at the time: The topic of the national team would ultimately lead to completely different problems than those that the Bayern official saw at the time.
“A struggle against myself day in and day out”
First of all, Oliver Kahn conducted an extremely remarkable interview immediately after the first leg and his mistake against Real Madrid. He told “Sport Bild”: “The only fight I still have is the fight against myself. Day in and day out, a struggle against myself.” And the Bayern keeper revealed that after the game against Real he watched the film “Papillon” “as always”: “No film shows so beautifully how you get to your goal. What you have to endure, what injuries you have to put up with “How much willpower it takes to keep going. Not to let anything, no matter how brutal the setbacks are, stop you from doing what you want.”
And so Oliver Kahn tried to quickly forget this sporting setback (“It’s just bad luck as a goalkeeper. Nothing else”), but the reality was different. Although he managed to be part of the national team at the 2004 European Championships, the catastrophic elimination in the preliminary round obviously did not strengthen his position as number one. The headlines and the humiliation (“Luder, Lappen, Lithuania”, Bernd Schmelzer in an ARD report about Kahn) continued. And even his goalkeeper coach Sepp Maier publicly joked about Kahn: “He needs the centimeters that he is missing on some goals now somewhere else.” But that wasn’t all. National coach Rudi Völler was followed by Jürgen Klinsmann after the unsuccessful European Championship – and one of his first decisions was a real hammer up his sleeve for the Bayern keeper.
To everyone’s surprise, Klinsmann announced: From now on, Oliver Kahn would no longer be the captain of the German national team, but Michael Ballack. And his next decision did not strengthen Kahn’s position either. In the first game under his direction, Klinsmann had both Kahn and Lehmann play one half each. From then on, the fight for number one in the national team’s box was also open to the public. A battle that Oliver Kahn, as he later said, may never have been able to win: “Of course I asked myself a lot of questions. Don’t Klinsmann and Lehmann have the same lawyer? Didn’t Lehmann and DFB manager Oliver Bierhoff know each other since childhood? Is it a coincidence that their wives are friends?”
“Boy, what are you doing?”
When events escalated dramatically in the spring of 2006 – Kahn made mistakes again, Lehmann played big with Arsenal and Bayern then demanded an early decision from the national coach in order to protect their own keeper – Jürgen Klinsmann and goalkeeping coach Andreas Köpke announced that Jens Lehmann would be in goal for the national team at the 2006 domestic World Cup. In his first reaction, Kahn was very professional and surprisingly composed: “I am very surprised and disappointed by this decision and will decide on my future with the national team in the next few weeks.” What happened next is history.
Twenty years ago, after the blackout against Real Madrid, Oliver Kahn looked deep into his soul. He has often asked himself the question: “Boy, what are you actually doing? You don’t need that anymore, just sit down somewhere and enjoy life.” However, quitting was never a solution for the man who coined the saying – “Further. Always further” -. But perhaps this tragic end in the national team and the beautiful farewell in the game for third place at the 2006 World Cup against Portugal reconciled him with himself in a certain way. Because even after the game and his mistake against Real Madrid twenty years ago, Kahn knew: “You still have enough time to enjoy your life.”
2024-03-16 06:37:00
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