Lukas Podolski spent the final years of his playing career in Poland—now, at the age of 40, he has retired. What remains is an impressive career, with the highlight coming in Rio.
Lukas Podolski announced the end of his professional career with a short video showing him putting away some soccer jerseys and other memorabilia. He let the images speak for themselves and didn’t have much to say—except for two words: “That’s it, time to call it a day.” Farewell words that somehow fit this popular figure perfectly.
His current club, Gornik Zabrze, commented on the news with the following words: “A chapter ends, a new era begins. World Champion Lukas Podolski will bring his successful career to a close this weekend. He is now the owner of his youth club—Gornik Zabrze. Thank you for everything, Poldi, and best of luck in your new role!”
A lasting legacy in German soccer
Over the past two decades, Podolski has left a lasting mark on German soccer. The forward took his first steps in professional soccer with 1. FC Köln, where he quickly became a fan favorite. In his first Bundesliga season, he scored ten goals in 19 games, yet the Rhinelanders were relegated.
But Podolski remained loyal to “his” FC, followed them into the 2. Bundesliga, and fired Cologne straight back into the Bundesliga with 24 goals (top scorer in the 2. Bundesliga) in 30 games. In the top flight, the striker once again proved his scoring touch, netting twelve times in 32 matches. But once again, relegation was on the cards for the Cologne side at the end of the season. This time, Podolski did not follow the team down to the second division, but instead moved to FC Bayern in the summer of 2006.
The left-footed player stayed with Bayern for three years, making 107 appearances and scoring 26 goals. With the German record champions, the attacking player won his first senior titles, claiming the German Championship and the DFB Cup with the Munich side in 2007/08.
Career highlight in Rio in 2014
After his time in Munich, Podolski returned to the Rhine to join his beloved club in Cologne, where he made a name for himself as a “Kölsche Jung” (Cologne lad). He played for the Effzeh in the Bundesliga for three seasons (96 games, 35 goals) and then moved to England to join Arsenal, with whom he won the FA Cup in 2014.
He also made an immediate impact with the Gunners, appearing in 33 league games (11 goals) in his first season. Subsequently, his playing time decreased, and in January 2015, he was loaned to Inter Milan for six months. This was followed by stints at Galatasaray, Vissel Kobe, Antalyaspor, and most recently in his native Poland with Górnik Zabrze, where he won the cup at the age of 40. Podolski left a lasting impression at most of his clubs.
He did the same, incidentally, with the German national team, where he helped define an era alongside his buddy Bastian Schweinsteiger, among others. The crowning achievement of that era—and of his career—came for the forward in 2014 in Rio, when he won the World Cup with the German national team (1-0 in extra time in the final against Argentina).
After nearly 23 years in professional soccer, the “Kölsche Jung” is calling it quits. “In recent years, I’ve put a lot of energy into my work on and off the field. Sometimes my family took a back seat, and I’d like to change that a bit,” Podolski said after the cup victory in early May. That is exactly what the 40-year-old has now done, bringing his impressive career to a close.