Lutz Pfannenstiel - The Goalkeeper who has played on 6 continents
Lutz Pfannenstiel, the only man to play professional football in 6 continents.
The enigma that is Lutz Pfannenstiel has played football for 25 different clubs all around the world, playing in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, Oceania and Central America.
From kidnapping a penguin, serving a prison sentence in Singapore and nearly dying on the pitch he has seen it all. The School of Football sketches out the story of this remarkable guy.
Born in Zwiesel, West Germany in 1973 Pfannenstiel began his footballing journey playing for the youth teams at SC Zwiesel and FC Vilshofen before he made he made his professional debut for German side 1. FC Bad Kötzting in 1991.
Over the next 20 years, his career would see him play in 15 different countries, playing for Nottingham Forest, Wimbledon, Huddersfield Town, Orlando Pirates and Vancouver Whitecaps to name just a few.
Pfannenstiel enjoyed one of the most storied careers in the game’s history and in January 2001 he was sentenced to 5 months in a Singaporean Prison in relation to match-fixing whilst playing for Geyland United, however after serving 101 days he was released due to a lack of evidence.
Just 2 years later and Pfannenstiel came back from the dead 3 times whilst playing for Bradford Park Avenue. After going for a 50/50 challenge, the German suffered a collapsed lung and his nervous system shut down and he was pronounced clinically dead 3 times on the pitch before physio Ray Killick revived him.
His career wasn’t all doom and gloom though, for instance in New Zealand he kidnapped a penguin from a local colony and kept the penguin in his bathtub but after being threatened with deportation the penguin was swiftly returned.
Since hanging up the gloves the former German U17 keeper has remained in football working as Hoffenheim’s head of scouting for 7 years, he was the Namibian national team’s assistant coach and he is currently the sporting director at St Louis City.
He is also a key voice in raising awareness of climate change and he founded the non-profit organisation, Global United in 2010.
To raise awareness of the issue he has done many stunts including spending a week in an igloo.
In 2014 the great man released an autobiography titled, “The Unstoppable Keeper”.
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