"Many new challenges ahead"

The nicknames were many.

Some called him 'the Titan', as he stood tall in Germany’s and Bayern München’s goal for two decades. Other fans prefered „Vol-kahn-o“, for Oliver Kahn certainly did have a flaring temper as well.

On Tuesday, Oliver Kahn, who in his prime was honoured three-times as the world’s outstanding keeper, will leave the field for the last time. Following a stellar 21 year career, Oliver Kahn, considered by many as the ultimate professional, finally retires.

In this DFB.de-interview, which also appears in tonight’s issue of “Bayern Magazine”, Oliver Kahn retraces the many highlights and some devastating lowpoints of his career. FC Bayern München face the German national team in a special tribute and farewell game tonight, to honor the legendary goalkeeper.

Question: Oliver Kahn, how do you feel about tonight’s last game in your career?

Oliver Kahn: It will be great to play in our arena one more time. Hopefully, the fans and I will enjoy the evening.

Question: Will you feel melancholic entering the field?

Kahn: I don’t know. I have dealt with my retirement for three months now, so I feel prepared for the occasion. You tend to get into a reflective and even ruminative mood. On the other hand, I have gone though the full cycle, I have experienced everything that professional football has to offer. Now I can close the book.

Question: Did you practice at all these last few days?

Kahn: I hit the weights quite a lot and I did some running. These last few days, I joined team practices – which is not easy following a three month absence. Then again, I don’t play this game tonight to have six more breathtaking saves.

Question: You will spend part of your post-football life speaking to school kids in Bavaria. What’s it about?

Kahn: The German Child Protection Agency asked for my support. For years, especially teenagers have asked me to give them advice, not only about football, but about life in general. I will speak at some Bavarian schools. My message will be simple: Talent is not enough. Hard work, dilligence and an iron will breed success. It’s not the most talented competitor that wins the fight, but the most detemerined one.

Question: Your creed…

Kahn: I tried to live by these words. By the age of twelve years, I had made up my mind to become a professional. And my goal was to become the best keeper in the world, nothing short of that.

Question: Please tell us about the days following your last game in the Bundesliga.

Kahn: It felt awkward. After two decades, you suddenly wake up without a running contract, knowing that this phase of your life has come to an end. Then I relaxed a bit and started to enjoy the day. I did many enjoyable things, vacationing with my family at the Cote d’Azur and on Sardinia. I also travelled to the United States.

Question: How do you feel as a retiree?

Kahn: Not so fast! I have many new challenges ahead of me. I spend the first half of my life as a football pro, now the other half is about to begin.

Question: What is the next item on your agenda?

Kahn: As reported, we have some activities lined-up for Asia, sports-related and entertainment-oriented items. We will have a talent search for China’s best goalkeeper for instance. Amateur players are asked to upload a short video sequence on an internet webpage. We might extend this project to other Asian markets. Then I’ll tour the Bavarian schools, followed by some promo events for my new book.

Question: What will you miss most about football?

Kahn: So far, not much. Everybody warns you about dropping into a hole, but I have not felt that yet. I don’t miss playing the game, not the practice sessions, I don’t need this anymore. I miss the camaraderie, though. The daily routines, the small-talk. That has always been fun.

Question: You played 14 years for Bayern, personifying the FC Bayern München really like few other players. For a while, you were the player every fan loved to hate. At the end of your career, the fans changed their attitude to Oliver Kahn. Any explanations?

Kahn: Maybe people began to sense that I had always kept my course, that I never compromised because of a certain pressure. I made mistakes, certainly, but today I can say that in my twenty years on the field, I never betrayed myself. Maybe fans saw that.

Question: Let’s imagine that you could return to the beginning of your career. Intriguing?

Kahn: For heaven’s sake, absolutely not. I am not sentimental at all. Time flies, even more so when you play football. The moment you have answered a challenge, won a title, you have to focus on reaching the next goal. That was particularly true in 2001, when we won the championship in Hamburg.

Question: When Patrick Anderson’s free kick led to a goal in the game’s last second, and you yelled “Immer weiter, immer weiter” (Don’t stop, never stop) across the field.

Kahn: Yes, that was the most spectacular championship ever. But we postponed the victory party, because we had to play the Champions League final in Milan the following Wednesday.

Question: ...where you won the game on penalties. The biggest thrill of your football life?

Kahn: It was a very special moment. Winning the Champions League is just such a high. And the game against Manchester United two years before that added even more weight and joy to the win over Valencia. We had lost to Real Madrid in the CL-semifinal in 2000. Another defeat in the final probably would have disheartened us tremendously.

Question: The 2-1 defeat at the hands of ManU in 1999 – the ultimate lowpoint of your career?

Kahn: Yes. But such a long time has passed since then, that I don’t feel that sadness any longer. At the time, it was almost unbearable. I thought I could never get up again. I remember the tears of Sammy Kuffour that night in Barcelona! But losing that game made us so much stronger. We had learned that never ceasing to play forward will eventually pay off. That Bayern team was just an incredible ensemble of players. We dominated the Champions League for a few years, which is highly unusual.

Question: You played an outstanding 2002 World Cup and fans started calling you ‘Titan’. Please tell us your memories of that time?

Kahn: That was the peak of my career. But it was also such an exhausting period. Every night I had to prove my status as the Titan.

Question: Four years later, when the World Cup came to Germany, you were forced to sit on the bench. But fans still remember you handshake with Jens Lehmann in the moments before the penalty shoot-out against Argentina. What were your thoughts at the time?

Kahn: Nothing planned about it. The players all came together on the field, and the I felt the impulse to go to our goalkeeper. It felt like the right thing to do, something very straightforward and normal. I mean, there was so much at stake. The World Cup is bigger than any of us, bigger than our emotional scars. Based on that belief, I agreed to play the backup role during the 2006 World Cup. I had to overcome my ego for that decision, which certainly was an important victory.

Question: Will you return to the game in the future?

Kahn: Never say never. But after 20 years, I’m ready for a break from football.

Question: You once said: ‘As a football player, you tend to live in the future’. How will you live in the future without football?

Kahn: Football is all about the next game, the new players on the team. The season just reaches the meridian, and then people already start talking about next year. Playing for a club such as FC Bayern, you have no time to savor anything. Now I have the time to reflect upon and to savor my experiences.