The final day of the 2008 Bundesliga season will mark the last game for Bayern Munich goalie Oliver Kahn, who is retiring Saturday after winning his eighth Bundesliga championship and sixth German Cup.
Saturday’s match against Karlsruhe — his hometown team — will be the 557th Bundesliga game for the 38-year-old Kahn, who is as loved by Bayern fans as he is detested by fans of rival clubs. He was a key player in Bayern’s 2001 UEFA Champions League title. “We’d never have won the Champions League without Kahn’s performances, and his character and desire off the field,” Bayern president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said recently. “He’s our most important player of the last decade.”
At the 2002 World Cup, Kahn led lightly regarded Germany to the final almost single-handedly. Four years later, Kahn lost the starting job to Jens Lehmann, his great rival. A devastated Kahn accepted the backup role and was hailed as a model of sportsmanship for his attitude. “It’s funny,” Kahn observed. “Throughout my career I’ve been renowned for fighting to the best but now, when I settle for second, everyone calls me a hero.”