Lahm seen here v Nani, Germany v Portugal in the 2012 European Championships. Photo by Kirill Kryzhanovskiy
by Dan Gaichas
A Dogulas Costa goal in the 17th minute, plus a few late saves by Manuel Neuer gave Bayern Munich a 1-0 win over a flat-until-late VfL Wolfsburg in the DFB Pokal 3rd Round. Bayern advance to the quarterfinals for the 10th straight year. Costa’s shot deflected off Luiz Gustavo and past keeper Koen Casteels. Neuer had to make a trio of crucial saves late in the match, two against Daniel Didavi and one against Yunus Malli.
However, the story of the night is that defender Philipp Lahm has announced that he will retire at the end of the season.
“I’m going to stop playing football at the end of the season,” said Lahm, 33, after the match against Wolfsburg. “More than a year ago I started checking and questioning myself from day to day and week to week. I’m certain I’ll maintain peak form through to the end of the season. I can manage that until the end of the campaign, but not beyond it.”
Save for a loan spell at VfB Stuttgart, Lahm has spent his entire career at Bayern recently making his 500th appearance for the club last week against Schalke. Lahm has won seven league titles, six German Cups, and a European Cup in his 15 seasons with Bayern. With Germany, he earned 113 caps, scored five goals, and captained the Germans in their 2014 World Cup triumph.
Thirty-three seems like a young age to retire, but Lahm has done quite a lot in 15 seasons and will go down as one of Bayern’s and Germany’s best ever players.
Meanwhile, the season continues for Bayern on Saturday when they travel to FC Ingolstadt at 8:30am CT on FS1.
