Lars Ricken
Ricken training with Borussia Dortmund (2006)
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Lars Ricken | ||
| Date of birth | 10 July 1976 | ||
| Place of birth | Dortmund, West Germany | ||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1982–1986 | TuS Eving-Lindenhorst | ||
| 1986–1990 | Eintracht Dortmund | ||
| 1990–1993 | Borussia Dortmund | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1993–2002 | Borussia Dortmund II | 11 | (2) |
| 1993–2007 | Borussia Dortmund | 301 | (49) |
| 2008–2009 | Borussia Dortmund II | 28 | (6) |
| Total | 340 | (57) | |
| National team | |||
| 1995–1998 | Germany U21 | 17 | (8) |
| 1997–2002 | Germany | 16 | (1) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Lars Ricken (born 10 July 1976) is a German retired footballer who played as a midfielder.
He represented Borussia Dortmund during his entire professional career, which spanned 15 years, being the youngest player to ever appear for the club in an official match, a record later broken by Nuri Şahin.
A German international for five years, Ricken represented the country at the 2002 World Cup and the 1999 Confederations Cup.
Born in Dortmund, Ricken joined local BV Borussia at an early age, and made his Bundesliga debut on 8 March 1994 in a 1–2 home defeat against VfB Stuttgart, aged not yet 18. From the following season onwards, he became a regular.
Ricken scored a memorable long-distance goal in the final of the 1996–97 edition of the UEFA Champions League against Juventus F.C., which stood as the fastest in a final of the competition by a substitute, finding the net after just 16 seconds on the field. He also combined for 47 matches and eight goals in the team's back-to-back national titles (1994–96).
In the following years, Ricken's success was hampered by a series of injuries. He gained his first cap for Germany on 10 September 1997, in a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Armenia, but missed that major international tournament as well as UEFA Euro 2000. Later, he restored his form, helping Dortmund to claim the league title in 2002 by scoring a career-best six goals and being selected by national coach Rudi Völler for the squad at that year's World Cup; he did not play in the competition, however, as Germany emerged runners-up.
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