Arsenal’s new summer recruit Lukas Podolski makes yet another record for his national team as he equals the German legend Franz Beckenbauer for most no of appearances. This is the 103rd International cap for the German as he came off the bench in a world cup qualifying match against Austria. Earlier this year Podolski crossed a century of appearances when he played in the European championship group stage match against Denmark and also scored the opening goal on the same night.
Podolski is now in 5th position on all-time appearance list for the German national team behind players like Lothar Matthäus and Miroslav Klose. Podolski, who turned 27 in June, only has Miroslav Klose ahead of him, who is still playing. Klose has 124 caps to his name but his age is not to his advantage as he is already 34 and well past his glory days. Podolski chose to play for Germany only after he was rejected by then coach Pawel Janas who claimed:
As for today we have much better strikers in Poland and I don’t see a reason to call up a player just because he played one or two good matches in the Bundesliga. He’s not even a regular starter for his club.
The Polish born player made his debut for Germany in 2004 and has scored an impressive 44 goals for national side.
Here is the list of the top 5 capped players for German national side:
- Lothar Matthäus – 150
- Miroslav Klose – 113
- Jürgen Klinsmann – 108
- Jürgen Kohler – 105
- Franz Beckenbauer / Lukas Podolski – 103
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