Mehmet Scholl

Scholl in 2016
Personal information
Full name	Mehmet Tobias Scholl[1]
Birth name	Mehmet Tobias Yüksel[1]
Date of birth	(1970-10-16) 16 October 1970 (age 53)
Place of birth	Karlsruhe, West Germany
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder
Youth career
1976–1982	SV Nordwest Karlsruhe
1982–1989	Karlsruher SC
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1989–1991	Karlsruher SC (A)	28	(7)
1989–1992	Karlsruher SC	58	(11)
1992–2007	Bayern Munich	334	(87)
Total		420	(105)
International career
1991–1992	Germany U21	5	(3)
1992	Germany Olympic	1	(0)
1995–2002	Germany	36	(8)
Managerial career
2008–2009	Bayern Munich U13
2009–2010	Bayern Munich II
2012–2013	Bayern Munich II
Medal record Bayern Munich Winner Bundesliga 1994 Runner-up DFB-Supercup 1994 Winner UEFA Cup 1996 Winner Bundesliga 1997 Winner DFB-Ligapokal 1997 Winner DFB-Pokal 1998 Winner DFB-Ligapokal 1998 Winner Bundesliga 1999 Runner-up DFB-Pokal 1999 Runner-up UEFA Champions League 1999 Winner DFB-Ligapokal 1999 Winner Bundesliga 2000 Winner DFB-Pokal 2000 Winner DFB-Ligapokal 2000 Winner Bundesliga 2001 Winner UEFA Champions League 2001 Runner-up UEFA Super Cup 2001 Winner Intercontinental Cup 2001 Winner Bundesliga 2003 Winner DFB-Pokal 2003 Winner DFB-Ligapokal 2004 Winner Bundesliga 2005 Winner DFB-Pokal 2005 Winner Bundesliga 2006 Winner DFB-Pokal 2006 Runner-up DFB-Ligapokal 2006  Germany Winner European Championship 1996
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Mehmet Tobias Scholl (born Mehmet Tobias Yüksel; 16 October 1970) is a German football manager and former player.

He played most of his career as an attacking midfielder for Bayern Munich. During his career he won the UEFA Cup in 1996 (scoring a goal in each leg of the final), Euro 1996, and the UEFA Champions League in 2001, as well as eight German Championships (all with Bayern Munich). He retired at the end of the 2006–07 Bundesliga season as one of the most successful German football players of all time.

Scholl was the subject of the 2007 career retrospective documentary film Frei:Gespielt – Mehmet Scholl: Über das Spiel hinaus by directors Ferdinand Neumayr and Eduard Augustin.

Club career[edit]

Scholl played for SV Nordwest Karlsruhe (from 1976 to 1982) and Karlsruher SC (from 1982 to 1992) before joining Bayern Munich in July 1992. He stayed at Bayern for the rest of his career, wearing the number 7 shirt. Scholl retired from professional football after the 2006–07 season. In 15 seasons at Bayern he played in 468 competitive matches for Bayern, scoring 116 goals – 88 of these appearances were in European cup competitions (18 goals).^[2]

He was one of the Bundesliga's most successful players, winning the championship eight times. Aged 19, he made his Bundesliga debut on 21 April 1990, coming on for Karlsruher SC in the 78th minute of their away match against 1. FC Köln, and promptly scored his team's fifth goal in the 90th minute.^[3] He scored 98 goals (11 for Karlsruhe, 87 for Bayern) in 392 Bundesliga matches (58 for Karlsruhe, 334 for Bayern).^[4] Scholl has been praised for his technical ability, his creative playmaking, his dribbling skills, and his free kicks. In early 2001, he was voted Player of the Year 2000 by the professional players of the First and Second Bundesliga, and in May 2005, fans voted him one of the eleven greatest Bayern players of all time.^[5]

International career[edit]

Scholl played 36 matches for the German national team between 1995 and 2002, scoring eight goals.^[6] He was part of Germany's winning team at Euro 96 where he played in the quarterfinal, semifinal, and final. In the 69th minute of the final when the Czech Republic was leading 1–0, he was substituted for the then relatively unknown Oliver Bierhoff who went on to score the two goals that turned the match around for Germany, catapulting Bierhoff to national and international fame.^[7] Scholl also played in all three of Germany's games at Euro 2000, scoring Germany's only goal in the tournament against Romania.^[8]

Scholl repeatedly suffered injuries throughout his career, preventing him from maintaining a regular spot on the national team and eventually prompting him to retire from the national team prior to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, making him one of Germany's most successful players never to have played in a World Cup.

Among German football fans, Scholl was one of the most popular footballers because of his character and his unique skills. Before the 2006 World Cup Campaign, more than 100,000 people signed an online petition, "Mehmet für Deutschland",^[9] to persuade Jürgen Klinsmann to include Scholl in the German squad. Despite the public support, Scholl was not included.

International goals[edit]

Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first.^[10]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	29 May 1996	Windsor Park, Belfast	Northern Ireland	1–1	1–1	Friendly
2.	4 June 1999	BayArena, Leverkusen	Moldova	5–0	6–1	Euro 2000 qualifier
3.	14 November 1999	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Norway	1–0	1–0	Friendly
4.	7 June 2000	Dreisamstadion, Freiburg	Liechtenstein	2–1	8–2
5.	12 June 2000	Stade Maurice Dufrasne, Liège	Romania	1–1	1–1	Euro 2000
6.	16 August 2000	Niedersachsenstadion, Hanover	Spain	1–0	4–1	Friendly
7.				2–0
8.	15 November 2000	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen	Denmark	1–2	1–2

Coaching career[edit]

On 27 April 2009, he was named as interim head coach for Bayern Munich II.^[11] He replaced Hermann Gerland who became assistant coach under Jupp Heynckes and continued to work as under-13 head coach. In July 2009 he was appointed as permanent manager of Bayern II and left the team on 30 June 2010 for a year, working on his coaching licence.^[12] Scholl returned to Bayern Munich II as head coach.^[13] In January 2013, Scholl announced that he would leave the team at the end of the 2012–13 season because he wanted to focus on his job as a TV pundit and that it conflicted with his work as coach.^[14]

Personal life[edit]

Scholl was born in Karlsruhe, the second son of Ergin and Hella Yüksel, a Turkish father and a German mother. When he was five, his parents divorced, and his mother then married Hermann Scholl from whom Mehmet acquired his surname.

In May 2002 and October 2003, he released two successful mixtapes, featuring his favourite bands. The compilation's title "Mehmet Scholl kompiliert – Vor dem Spiel ist nach dem Spiel" is a reference to Sepp Herberger's famous expression "nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel" ("after the game is before the game"). In an interview, Scholl said he chose this title because he listens to this music before the game, after the game, in the car on the way to the stadium, and in the car when leaving the stadium. The first volume includes songs by The Beta Band, Sportfreunde Stiller, Jimmy Eat World, and The Notwist (complete track list^[15]) among others. The second volume includes songs by Oasis, Wir sind Helden, and The Flaming Lips (complete track list^[16]) to name a few. Once a month, he co-presents the feature Mehmets Schollplatten^[17] in the program Nachtmix of the Bayern 2 radio station, which is the culturally oriented channel of the federal public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk.

As a young player, Scholl was quoted with the words "hängt die Grünen, solange es noch Bäume gibt" ("hang the Greens while there still are trees"), seemingly expressing his dislike for the German Green Party. He was widely criticized for this quote because most people did not understand his point which was to point out that in the near future there might be no trees left, thereby giving his statement an ironic touch. Even though he made further ironic remarks in this interview ("One thing you'd never do?" "I'd never put a blind man at an advertising pillar and tell him that this is the wall he needs to walk down to get home."), some people did not get the jokes. However, he was sued by a Green politician for instigation to murder and eventually he donated 15,000 DM to charity. Afterwards, Scholl was asked by a journalist which party he would vote for, but he answered: "Green naturally – I cannot leave them hanging" ("Grün natürlich, ich kann sie ja nicht hängenlassen").^[18]

Scholl is officially without religious confession, but is an avid follower of Buddhist principles.^[18]

Since his retirement from football, he has taken up nine-pin bowling (Kegeln), a sport in which he already excelled as a youth.^[19]

Career statistics[edit]

Club[edit]

^[20]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Karlsruher SC	1989–90	Bundesliga	3	1	0	0	–		–		3	1
	1990–91		27	6	1	0	–		–		28	6
	1991–92		28	4	2	1	–		–		30	5
	Total		58	11	3	1	0	0	0	0	61	12
Bayern Munich	1992–93	Bundesliga	31	7	2	0	–		–		33	7
	1993–94		27	11	2	1	–		4	1	33	13
	1994–95		31	9	1	0	1	0	10	3	43	12
	1995–96		30	10	2	0	–		11	5	43	15
	1996–97		23	5	3	1	–		2	0	28	6
	1997–98		32	9	6	2	2	0	8	0	48	11
	1998–99		13	4	2	0	0	0	3	0	18	4
	1999–2000		25	6	3	1	2	0	12	3	42	10
	2000–01		29	9	1	1	2	1	16	5	48	16
	2001–02		18	6	3	1	0	0	2	0	23	7
	2002–03		18	4	4	0	1	0	4	0	27	4
	2003–04		5	0	2	1	1	0	1	0	9	1
	2004–05		20	3	2	1	0	0	5	1	27	5
	2005–06		18	3	3	2	0	0	6	0	27	5
	2006–07		14	1	1	0	1	0	4	0	20	1
	Total		334	87	37	11	10	1	88	18	469	117
Career total			392	98	40	12	10	1	88	18	530	129

International[edit]

Country	Season	Competitive		Friendlies		Total		Ref
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Germany
	1994–95	2	0	1	0	3	0	[10]
	1995–96	3	0	6	1	9	1	[10]
	1996–97	2	0	1	0	3	0	[10]
	1997–98	—		—		—		[10]
	1998–99	6	1	0	0	6	1	[10]
	1999–2000	3	1	5	2	8	3	[10]
	2000–01	3	0	3	3	6	3	[10]
	2001–02	—		1	0	1	0	[10]
Career total		19	2	17	6	36	8	[10]

Managerial statistics[edit]

As of 24 May 2013

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Bayern Munich II	27 April 2009[11]	30 June 2010[12]	41	8	10	23	35	61	−26	019.51
Bayern Munich II	1 July 2012[13]	30 June 2013[14]	38	21	10	7	71	31	+40	055.26
Totals			79	29	20	30	106	92	+14	036.71

Honours[edit]

Club[edit]

Bayern Munich

• Bundesliga: 1993–94, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06
• DFB-Pokal: 1997–98, 1999–2000, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06
• DFB-Ligapokal: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004
• UEFA Champions League: 2000–01
• UEFA Cup: 1995–96
• Intercontinental Cup: 2001

International[edit]

Germany

• UEFA European Championship: 1996

Individual[edit]

• ESM Team of the Year: 1995–96, 2000–01
• kicker Bundesliga Team of the Season: 1997–98, 2000–01^[21][22]
• Goal of the Month (Germany): January 2000, December 2000, February 2003
• Bravo Otto: 1996, 1997, 2000
• Bayern Munich All-time XI

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• "Seven up for serial champion Mehmet". fcbayern.de. 2 May 2006. Retrieved 7 March 2008.
• "Scholl hangs up international boots". BBC Sport. 24 April 2002. Retrieved 7 March 2006.
• Bidwell, Nick (May 2001). "FC Hollywood's leading man". World Soccer. 41 (8): 18.
• "Scholl scoops award". BBC Sport. 9 February 2001. Retrieved 7 March 2006.
• "Mehmet Scholl und Martin Driller ganz vorne". kicker online (in German). 9 February 2001. Archived from the original on 23 February 2006. Retrieved 7 March 2006.

External links[edit]

• Player profile on the Bundesliga's official website
• Mehmet Scholl at fussballdaten.de (in German)