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Football

17th Nov 2014

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about Jurgen Klinsmann

The man's got his fair share of fun facts

Darragh Murphy

1. Jurgen served an apprenticeship in baking and actually achieved a diploma at it. His family own a bakery in Botnang, Stuttgart and Klinsmann is sometimes referred to as the “baker’s son from Botnang.”

2. Cleverclogs Jurgen is fluent in four languages – English, Italian, French and … (shocker) German.

GERMANY V BELGIUM

3. Klinsmann has a helicopter pilot’s licence and is known to spend his free time flying around Southern California.

4. After Klinsmann moved to America, he wanted to carry on playing some football, in 2003, he made eight appearances for American Development League side Orange County Blue Star under the pseudonym Jay Göppingen, scoring five goals.

5. Dead-on Klinsmann donated all the proceeds of his sold-out testimonial game, more than $1million to children’s charities.

6. The soundness continues. In 1995, Klinsmann and his friends founded a children’s charity foundation called Agapedia (Greek for ‘Love for children’)

SPURS V NEWCASTLE

7. Jurgen’s son, Jonathan, is a goalkeeper and he has been called up to the U.S.A. under-18 squad. He has also spent some time training with the Stuttgart academy.

8. Touted as a diver when he signed for Spurs in ’94, the first thing he asked the journalists at a press conference was “Are there any good diving schools in London?”

9. Klinsmann is married to former American model Debbie Chin.

klinsmann wife

10. Jurgen Klinsmann manages the U.S.A. team (OK, you probably knew that one but 10 is hard to get to).

Ghana v USA: Group G - 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil