The Madness is on the Pitch

In this candid autobiography, Jens Lehmann reflects on the a 23-year playing career as an elite goalkeeper, performing at the pinnacle of European and International football.

In a career spanning four decades, Lehmann was twice voted Europe's best goalkeeper. He won league titles in both England and Germany, and the UEFA Cup with his boyhood club Schalke. In one Champions League campaign, he went a miraculous 852 minutes without conceding a goal. Undoubtedly one of the best goalkeepers in recent times, Lehmann was also one of the most unconventional. He always sought out challenges that not only tested him as a footballer, but as a person as well.

This extraordinary sportsman has now taken stock to write about his career. Imparting his own dry humour on each subject matter, Lehmann takes us from Schalke to bitter rivals Borussia Dortmund, via Milan. From there he moves to Arsenal under Arsene Wenger, before his career comes to a close with Stuttgart in Germany.

At the 2006 World Cup Lehmann did things his own way, employing kidology in the form of a note in his sock during a quarter-final shootout with Argentina. Germany wouldn't win that tournament, another agonising defeat that he would have to come to terms with. But for every near miss in his career Lehmann would experience an incredible high, representative of his Jekyll and Hyde character.