Lutz Pfannenstiel: the ultimate journeyman footballer on penguins, prison and dying three times

From Malaysia and South Africa to Namibia and Norway via Brazil and Armenia, the 41-year-old former goalkeeper is the only person to have played professionally in every Fifa confederation

There are journeymen and there are journeymen. And then there is Lutz Pfannenstiel, a 41-year-old former goalkeeper who puts every other multi-club footballer to shame. From Malaysia and South Africa to Namibia and Norway via Brazil and Armenia, Pfannenstiel is the only person to have played professionally in every Fifa confederation. It is a career that spanned 21 years, 25 clubs and six continents and included stealing a penguin in New Zealand to chasing down burglars and living in an igloo.

There were dark moments as well, though. In January 2001, Pfannenstiel was sentenced to five months in prison in Singapore after being accused of making a “corrupt verbal agreement” in relation to match-fixing. While playing for Geyland United, a club based in the south-east of the island, the German was found guilty of accepting an offer from a match-fixer to raise three separate sums of 7,000 Singaporean dollars to bet on his team’s games.

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source Sport | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1CujobS