BIOGRAPHYLukas Josef Podolski born Łukasz Podolski IPA: on 4 June 1985 in Gliwice, Poland is a German footballer who plays as a striker for 1. FC Köln and for the German national team. He joined 1. FC Köln in 1995 where he broke into the first team in 2003 and made 81 appearances for the club before moving to Bayern Munich. After three years in Munich with mixed success, Podolski returned to Köln. He was first capped in 2004 and has been part of the squad in all major tournaments since then. Although he was eligible to play for Germany and Poland, Podolski chose to play for Germany.
Podolski was born to Waldemar Podolski, who played professional football in Poland and won the Polish championship in 1980 with Szombierki Bytom, and to Krystyna Podolska, a former member of the Polish national handball team in the Silesian industrial town of Gliwice (near Katowice), Poland. In 1987, when Łukasz Podolski was two years old, his family emigrated from Poland to West Germany and was given Aussiedler status as a result of his paternal grandparents having German citizenship prior to WWII (Gliwice had until 1945 been a part of Germany as Gleiwitz).Podolski grew up in Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, and later in Pulheim, both near Cologne.
Podolski holds both German and Polish nationality, but has stated that he does not have a Polish passport. In an interview Podolski said that the Polish football association never cared about him until he started playing for the German U21 national team and received coverage in the media. At that point, Podolski arrived at the decision, but nevertheless "there are two hearts beating" in his chest
Personal information
Full name: Lukas Josef Podolski
Date of birth: 4 June 1985
Place of birth: Gliwice, Poland
Height: 1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Playing position: Forward,Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club: 1. FC Köln
Number: 10
Youth career
1991–1995 FC Jugend 07 Bergheim
1995–2002 1. FC Köln
Senior career*
2002–2004 1. FC Köln II 2 (0)
2003–2006 1. FC Köln 81 (46)
2006–2009 Bayern Munich 72 (15)
2007–2008 Bayern Munich II 2 (0)
2009– 1. FC Köln 49 (12)
National team‡
2004 Germany U-21 5 (0)
2004– Germany 84 (42)
