Birthday boy of the month IV: Oliver Neuville turns 50

He came to the Bundesliga at the age of 24 in 1997: Hansa Rostock secured the services of the striker. In his two years on the Baltic coast, Olli became a Germany international. He also came to the attention of Bayer 04 Leverkusen in those two years. He moved under the Bayer Cross in 1999 and went on to play 165 Bundesliga matches and scored 42 goals for the Werkself in five years. Olli was a Bundesliga runner-up in 2000 and 2002 and in the 2001/02 campaign he played in the DFB Cup final with Bayer 04 and was also in the line-up for the Black and Reds in the Champions League final against Real Madrid in Glasgow.

He was a World Cup runner-up with Germany in 2002 and finished third in the World Cup in Germany four years later. He was also runner-up in the European Championships in 2008. With the last two honours he was playing for Borussia Mönchengladbach who he joined on a free in 2004.

He was very successful there too and, as in Leverkusen, he scored 42 goals in 161 appearances. In July 2006 he scored a brilliant goal when, with his back to the goal, he jumped to back-heel the ball into the net. That strike was voted Goal of the Year 2006 by viewers of the ARD Sportschau.

He ended his playing career after a brief period in Bundesliga 2 at Arminia Bielefeld from the summer of 2010 to February 2011. But Olli stayed in football. Borussia Mönchengladbach secured his services in 2013 way became assistant coach to the U 23 team. He still works on the Lower Rhine as assistant coach at the Foals where he is able to pass on his experience in many languages. In addition to German, Olli Neuville also speaks Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Tutto il meglio e rimanete in salute!