About Lars Ricken
Lars Ricken (born 10 July 1976) is a German retired footballer and the current managing director of Borussia Dortmund. From 2008 to 2024, he was the youth coordinator at Dortmund. Ricken represented Borussia Dortmund throughout his entire professional career, which spanned 15 years. He was the youngest player to appear for the club in an official match, a record later broken by Nuri Şahin. An attacking midfielder, he won three Bundesliga titles (1994–95, 1995–96, 2001–02) and scored in the 1996–97 Champions League final, which Dortmund won. A German international for five years, Ricken represented the country at the 2002 World Cup and the 1999 Confederations Cup. == Career == Born in Dortmund, Ricken joined local Borussia at an early age and made his Bundesliga debut on 8 March 1994 in a 1–2 home defeat against VfB Stuttgart, aged not yet 18. From the following season onward, he became a regular. Ricken scored a memorable long-distance goal in the final of the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League edition against Juventus FC, which stood as the fastest goal in a final of the competition by a substitute, finding the net after just 16 seconds on the field. He also contributed 8 goals in 47 matches in the team’s back-to-back national titles (1994–96).
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.