Carsten Jancker

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Carsten Jancker (in Chinese:杨克尔) (born August 28, 1974 in Grevesmühlen, Germany) is a German professional footballer who is playing for the Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua. He played for Germany at Euro 2000 and the 2002 FIFA World Cup and has earned over 30 caps, scoring 10 goals, for his country.

A striker, Jancker is physically very large for a footballer, standing at 1.94m and weighing 93kg. His height and strength have proved to be an advantage when playing as a targetman, as displayed during his most successful days at Bayern Munich. Jancker was known for being an unusual center striker, being weak in the air despite his huge frame, but showing a surprising control of the ball, especially featuring a polished back-to-the-goal game, and a touch for scoring with his hard right-footed shot.

Jancker started his career as a trainee at Hansa Rostock before making his Bundesliga debut in 1993 with 1.FC Koln. At the age of 21, he was transferred to Rapid Vienna, scoring fourteen goals including seven in the European Cup Winners' Cup to finish as the tournament's top scorer. Thanks to this impressive performance, Jancker spent only one season with the Austrian club before being brought back to Germany to play for Bayern Munich.

Jancker's time at Bayern between 1996 and 2002 was the best period of his career, a spell which included four Bundesliga titles and victory in the 2001 UEFA Champions League. At Bayern, Jancker was partnered with the Brazilian inside-forward Giovane Elber, often rated as one of the Bundesliga's best attacking players. His performances alongside Elber caught the eye of German national coach Erich Ribbeck, who included Jancker in his international squad for Euro 2000.

Instantly recognisable to European football fans, the invariably shaven-headed forward has generally failed to replicate his club form when playing for Germany. A possible explanation for his poorly-regarded international performances might be that the German national team lacks a skilful strike partner in the Elber mould. Whatever the reason, Jancker has never impressed for Germany; although he was included in Rudi Völler's squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he was dropped from the team shortly after the tournament and has never since been recalled. His German international scoring record currently stands at six goals in 22 games.

Jancker left Bayern for Italian side Udinese in 2002, but the move was not a success; over two seasons and 35 games, the forward registered only two goals. Jancker was said to be "too slow and predictable for Serie A" by one soccer website. In 2004 Jancker returned to Germany with Kaiserslautern and showed a slight improvement in form, netting five times in 25 games. Following relegation of Kaiserslautern, Jancker sign with Shanghai Shenhua in May 2006.

[edit] Clubs

• Hansa Rostock (1992-93)
• FC Cologne (1993-95)
• Rapid Vienna (1995-96)
• Bayern Munich (1996-2002)
• Udinese (2002-04)
• Kaiserslautern (2004-06)
• Shanghai Shenhua(2006-)

	Germany squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup Runners-up
1 Kahn | 2 Linke | 3 Rehmer | 4 Baumann | 5 Ramelow | 6 Ziege | 7 Neuville | 8 Hamann | 9 Jancker | 10 Ricken | 11 Klose | 12 Lehmann | 13 Ballack | 14 Asamoah | 15 Kehl | 16 Jeremies | 17 Bode | 18 Böhme | 19 Schneider | 20 Bierhoff | 21 Metzelder | 22 Frings | 23 Butt | Coach: Völler