Munich: Veteran goalkeeper Oliver Kahn may have endured a difficult World Cup with Germany — playing second fiddle to Jens Lehmann — but he shrugged off that disappointment to become the star of the opening weekend of the Bundesliga.
The Bayern Munich captain made his 500th Bundesliga appearance in Friday’s curtain raiser against Borussia Dortmund and produced a fine display to help his team to a 2-0 win.
“It was an enormously important victory for us,” said Kahn. “We put the poor pre-season results behind us and got off to a perfect start.
“It is great to reach the landmark 500 Bundesliga games. Now I will concentrate on playing many more.”
The 37-year-old made his Bundesliga debut for Karlsruhe back in 1987 before moving to German powerhouse Bayern in 1994.
Since then he has been a regular in goal and becomes one of the few players to reach the 500 mark.
Kahn is 11th in the all-time Bundesliga appearance list headed by Eintracht Frankfurt icon Karl-Heinz Korbel at 602. Kahn is unlikely to top that mark but he is just two games behind Stefan Reuter’s tally of 502.
After retiring from international football after this summer’s World Cup on home soil Kahn vowed to focus on club football and started the season in fine fettle pulling off several great saves to prevent Dortmund getting back into the match.
“Dortmund had too many chances and we owed a lot to Oliver Kahn,” Bayern coach Felix Magath said. “He was excellent and kept them at bay.”
It was a 185th clean sheet in the Bundesliga for the irrepressible Kahn who has won every honour at club level with Bayern collecting seven Bundesliga titles, five German Cups and the Champions League in 2001.
(AFP)