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Tottenham Hotspur Fan View: A short history of Spurs’ Germans in the Premier League
Gareth Southgate’s plucky young charges take on World Champions Germany on Wednesday evening, in a blockbuster of a friendly at the Westfalenstadion. To mark the occasion, here’s a look at some of the fabulous German imports who’ve lit up the Premier League in a Spurs shirt.
Achtung, baby!
Steffen Freund
It’s probably quite a telling indication of the state of 90s-era Spurs, that a player who contrived to score zero goals in his entire career at White Hart Lane, could be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Not that the likeable German was employed for his net finding prowess, of course. Freund’s strengths lay in the no-nonsense approach to his duties and a hardy work ethic that could land him a job on an offshore oil rig.
The Euro ‘96 and Worthington Cup winner came back to the club as assistant head coach under André Villas-Boas and was given the cushy-sounding title of International Technical Coordinator when the Portuguese dreamboat left.
Jürgen Klinsmann
On paper, Jürgen Klinsmann’s move to perennial midtablers Spurs, shortly after crashing in five goals at USA ’94, was a confusing one. Why, exactly, did one of the World’s finest strikers choose to join a club who’d finished 15th in the previous season and one that could still find employment for Jason Dozzell?
Here’s Klinsmann talking to Sky News at the time:
“At first I considered going back to Italy, then I was thinking more and more about Tottenham – a large and prestigious club. They gave me the possibility of playing for the championship..”
Oh, I see what’s happened here. Alan Sugar has taken you aboard his big, flashy yacht in the port of Monte Carlo and fed you some nonsense about Spurs challenging for honours, hasn’t he? That is classic Alan. Still, undeterred by the distinct lack of a title push, Klinsmann went on to score 30 in 50 games in his first turn in North London, becoming an instant legend in the process.
Christian Ziege
A fine left-back and for a good while, the only choice for any Tottenham fan’s All-Time Premier League XI. Until Gareth Bale came along, who you could craftily push back into defence to accommodate David Ginola on the left-wing. It’s all about working the angles, folks.
Ziege was a serial medal collector throughout his career, at Bayern, AC Milan and, later, Liverpool, but was sadly unable to emit any of that magic trophy dust on early-millennial Spurs. He did manage to score seven goals in his first season, which is seven times more than Justin Edinburgh recorded in a decade. In 2002, Ziege thumped in a thirty-yard free-kick against Arsenal, which, as everyone knows, guarantees hero status for life.
And a special mention…
Lewis Holtby
That fatal combination of a cherubic face, dashing haircut and derring-do attitude whenever he pulled on the Lilywhite jersey. Holtby was a popular figure of AVB’s short reign, despite not quite making the impact we all hoped he would. His diving homage to countryman Jürgen Klinsmann when celebrating his first goal for Tottenham was a genuinely great moment. Oh, Lewis. What might have been.
