A biography for Philipp Lahmhasn’t been written yet.
“As a full back, your role is just as much in playing in midfield, getting forward and creating chances, as it is stopping them at the other end.”
“At the start of every season, I always asked myself - am I meeting my own standards? Can I still do it? I didn't want to come to the conclusion that I couldn't during a season.”
“Fear mustn't take control of us.”
“In a World Cup you always intend to compete with the best.”
“The title I most want is the 2014 World Cup.”
“Every single player has to take responsibility for what they do. Look at the Manchester United team that won the Champions League in 2008, they didn't have a 'leader' like Roy Keane any more.”
“We have big goals at Bayern and always want to go as far as possible in each competition and win silverware. But it is great to have won the World Cup. You are a world champion for your entire life. A lof of people talk about it and it remains very special. But it's not like I think about the World Cup each morning I wake up.”
“Our sport needs lethal strikers, goalscorers, heroes. But football is much more than the moment of triumph.”
“We know South Americans are impulsive and temperamental and cannot lose.”
“Every Bundesliga match is a new challenge, our opponents don't make it easy for us.”
“Always being champion, always being at the top every three days, playing great football - it's not that easy.”
“For me it's more difficult to play against the quicker wingers, but for the team it's perhaps more difficult to face players that are good passers, because one through ball can take the whole team out of the game.”
“We practically only practiced fitness under Klinsmann, there was very little technical instruction and the players themselves discussed the way they would play a game before the match.”
“It's obvious that I'd like to keep the captain's armband. The job gives me a great deal of enjoyment. Why should I then give it up by choice?”
“Being Bayern captain feels good and I think it's logical a player from Munich should lead FC Bayern on to the pitch.”
“Pep is a super coach! He is excellent. He is the best at analysing an opponent and the concept of a game. I don't know what impact he had on German football, but he left a mark on all of us at Bayern because of how he analysed and educated the players in each position and the way he taught us to play.”
“We should not discuss refereeing performances but support decisions to help their work.”
“I do a lot of things instinctively.”
“Germans have a rich history of playing well in the World Cup.”
“Scoring first changes everything. It makes everything easier for us.”