Oliver Bierhoff Net Worth in 2023 Career & Relationship

Estimated value:	€71 million
Age:	54
Born:	05/01/1968
Country of origin:	Germany
Source of Wealth:	footballer
Last updated:	2021

Short introduction

Oliver Bierhoff is a former professional footballer who scored the two goals in Germany’s victory over the Czech Republic in the 1996 European Championship final. He was also top scorer for Udinese Calcio in Serie A in Italy. In 2004 he became manager of the German national team, where he introduced many new marketing campaigns during his time. He has also been one of four DFB directors since 2018, before that he was responsible for planning the new DFB academy.

early life

Born in Karlsruhe, the son of an RWE board member grew up in the south of Essen. Like his father, who played for the national youth team, he played football here from an early age. His first two clubs were Essen SG 99/06 and Schwarz-Weiß Essen. Here he played with Jens Lehmann, among others. When he was still a boy, Oliver Bierhoff moved to Bayer Uerdingen, the Bundesliga club at the time, where he made it into the professional squad in 1986. From now on, a changeable career as a player took its course.

Career

First, Bierhoff played two seasons with Bayer Uerdingen, the then first division team, during which he made 31 appearances in the Bundesliga and scored 4 goals. He then moved to Hamburger SV for two years, where he also did not become a regular player. After a brief spell at Borussia Mönchengladbach, his first engagement abroad was at SV Austria Salzburg. Here he was significantly more successful with 23 goals in 32 games than at his previous stations. That’s why clubs from Italy also became aware of him.

First he spent four seasons at Ascoli Calcio, where Bierhoff, who was particularly dangerous as a header, scored 48 goals in 117 league games. However, all of this in Serie B, the second highest division in Italy. But then he moved to the first division club Udinese Calcio, where he stayed for three seasons. There he was also top scorer in Serie A in the 1997/98 season with 27 goals. He was then bought by AC Milan, where Bierhoff was also a regular for three seasons. He then spent one season each at AS Monaco and Chievo Verona before retiring as a player in 2003.

During this time, he first played a few international matches for Germany before he also played for the senior national team from 1996 to 2002. Here he scored 37 goals in 70 international matches, including both goals in the 2-1 final victory at the European Championships in 1996 over the Czech Republic. In 2002, Bierhoff became runners-up with the national team in Japan and South Korea when, as a substitute, he was unable to avert the 0-2 final defeat by Brazil. The two goals in the 1996 final made Bierhoff suddenly famous.

This was almost immediately followed by his position as manager of the German national team. He was appointed by Jürgen Klinsmann, the new national coach. While he ended his job at the DFB in 2006 after the end of the World Cup in his own country, Bierhoff remained in this new position. Over the years, further tasks at the DFB were added, in 2018 he even rose to the position of DFB director and gained massive influence in the DFB. On the one hand, Bierhoff won the 2014 World Cup during his time as manager of the national team, but also the first failure in the preliminary round in 2018, after which he was subjected to harsh criticism. Nevertheless, Bierhoff was able to stay in his post at the DFB.

Career highlights

The greatest success was undoubtedly winning the European Championship in 1996 with Germany. In addition, he became champion in Italy in 1999 with AC Milan. He was top scorer in Serie A in 1998 and in Serie B in 1993. In 1998 he was also voted Germany’s footballer of the year.

Famous quotes

“I noticed as a player that coaches often make the mistake of going off their line when there is pressure from the public and from the club.”

“In England, if you manage to dribble but the shot goes ten meters over the goal, there’s a lot of applause; in Italy a player like that gets whistled at, no matter how great the dribbling may have been.”

“Goals are the true bread of the striker.”

“I can still well remember the skepticism at the DFB when I put the name of Joachim Löw as a possible successor to Jürgen Klinsmann. Not that they didn’t think he was capable of that – but the DFB was always used to big names like Beckenbauer, Völler or Klinsmann.”

Amazing Facts

In his youth, Bierhoff was a member of the Essen Cathedral Boys’ Choir. He was also bullied by his teammates during his time at Hamburger SV because of his elitist origins in relation to his father’s work.

Bierhoff is the father of a daughter with his wife Klara Szalantzy. In 2002, Bierhoff graduated from the distance learning university in Hagen with a degree in business administration. For this he had needed 26 semesters in addition to his career as a professional soccer player.

Estimated value:	€71 million