Lars Ricken (born 10 July 1976) is a German retired footballer and the current managing director of

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

. From 2008 to 2024, he was the youth coordinator at Dortmund. Ricken represented Borussia Dortmund throughout his entire professional career, which spanned 15 years. He was the youngest player to appear for the club in an official match, a record later broken by

Nuri Şahin Nuri Şahin (born 5 September 1988) is a German and Turkish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He was most recently head coach of Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund. He began his playing career at Dortmun ...

. An

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, he won three Bundesliga titles ( 1994–95, 1995–96, 2001–02) and scored in the 1996–97 Champions League final, which Dortmund won. A German international for five years, Ricken represented the country at the 2002 World Cup and the 1999 Confederations Cup.

Career

Born in

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

, Ricken joined local Borussia at an early age and made his

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

debut on 8 March 1994 in a 1–2 home defeat against

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

, aged not yet 18. From the following season onward, he became a regular. Ricken scored a memorable long-distance goal in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

of the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League edition against

Juventus FC Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

, which stood as the fastest goal in a final of the competition by a substitute, finding the net after just 16 seconds on the field. He also contributed 8 goals in 47 matches 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 earned his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

on 10 September 1997, in a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier against

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

, but missed that major international tournament as well as UEFA Euro 2000. Later, he restored his form, helping Dortmund claim the league title in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

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 finished runners-up. Ricken’s injury woes returned after the World Cup and, as a consequence, he failed to earn recognition at either the European or international level. In early April 2007, he was demoted to the reserve team by manager

Thomas Doll Thomas Jens Uwe Doll (born 9 April 1966) is a German professional Association football, football manager and a former Association football, football player. As a player, he played as an attacking midfielder for F.C. Hansa Rostock, BFC Dynamo, Ha ...

due to substandard performance. In November 2007, Ricken announced his retirement from football. In an attempt to return to the sport, he briefly attended a training camp in February 2008 with the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew are an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1996 as one of the 10 cha ...

of the

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

, but returned to Germany and Dortmund after a few days. On 11 June 2008, Borussia Dortmund sport director Michael Zorc, also a former club footballer, announced that Ricken was to be hired as youth coordinator with immediate effect, while still appearing for the amateur side in the

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German professional football division administered by the German Football Association#Western Germany, Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. ...

. However, on 16 February 2009, he announced his retirement from professional football. On 22 April 2024, Ricken was announced to take over the duties of CEO for Sport at Borussia Dortmund from Hans-Joachim Watzke, beginning on 1 May 2024.

Career statistics

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

: 1994–95, 1995–96, 2001–02 * DFB-Supercup:

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

: 1996–97 * Intercontinental Cup:

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

runner-up:

Germany *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

runner-up:

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ricken, Lars 1976 births Living people Footballers from Dortmund German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Borussia Dortmund players Borussia Dortmund II players Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's B international footballers Germany men's international footballers 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Champions League–winning players Borussia Dortmund non-playing staff West German men's footballers

Career

Career statistics

Honours

See also

References

External links