The 2006 World Cup title gave rise to the name of a talented striker who became the mainstay of the German national team, namely Lukas Podolski. Prior to the event, the name of the player who was identical with his left-handed foot was not taken into account.
Undeniably, at that time Podolski was only 21 years old and defended the Bundesliga's mid-table club, FC Koln. However, he was able to shake the stage for the 2006 World Cup to take the German national team further.
Joined in Group A along with Costa Rica, Poland, and Ecuador, Germany looks so powerful by sweeping three wins in the group phase. Then, Podolski opened the tap on his goal on the last matchday against Ecuador and made his name even more considered in the 2006 World Cup.
Until in the round of 16 against Sweden, Podolski successfully scored a brace and brought Der Panzer to the last 8 round. Unfortunately, the player who is currently playing with Górnik Zabrze, a Polish League club, failed to deliver Germany to the 2006 World Cup at that time.
Best Young Player
Thanks to his brilliant performance at the 2006 World Cup, Lukas Podolski was selected as the Best Young Player of the event. He was selected by the 14 members of the FIFA Technical Study Group (TSG) after assessing his style, fair play, spirit and technical ability.
He successfully set aside 40 young players from 32 countries. Despite appearing for the first time in the World Cup, Podolski has been able to score three goals from seven appearances in the prestigious event.
The success of scoring three goals made Podolski level with Ronaldo, Thiery Henry, Fernando Torres, David Villa, Maxi Rodriguez, Hernan Crespo and Zinedine Zidane. Thanks to this achievement, Podolski was entitled to the title of the best young player at the 2006 World Cup.
Only Able to Bring Germany to Third Place
After being able to get past Argentina in the last 8 round, Germany was waiting for the opponent who was then the champion, namely Italy. Lukas Podolski as usual started and was paired with Miroslav Klose to tear apart the Gli Azzurri defense which was commanded by Fabio Cannavarro.
However, Der Panzer had to lift the suitcase dramatically after being defeated by Italy in extra time. Gli Azzurri were actually able to score two goals in the final minutes of extra time through Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero.
Despite losing against Italy, Der Panzer could still end the 2006 World Cup tournament with a smile on their face, considering they won the Bronze medal when they beat Portugal in the race for third place.