Player Profile: 1. Jens Lehmann "Mad Jens"

Jens Gerhard Lehmann (born November 10, 1969 in Essen) is a German football goalkeeper who currently plays for Arsenal of the English Premier League and the German national team.

Lehmann started his career in 1989 with Schalke 04, playing for them for nearly a decade. His first years were rocky, his nadir an infamous 45-minute stint against Bayer Leverkusen in 1993 in which he conceded three howler goals and was subbed after 45 minutes, causing him to flee the stadium alone by tram rather than taking the team bus, but gradually established himself as a strong keeper lauded for his ability to intercept crosses.

Lehmann became the Ruhr Valley club's hero in their 1997 UEFA Cup final victory over Internazionale, after playing a strong season and saving an Ivan Zamorano penalty in a penalty shootout.

He left Schalke for A.C. Milan in 1998, but did not play well and was dropped after just five matches. He returned to Germany to play for Borussia Dortmund, winning the Bundesliga in 2001-2002. A fiery personality with a poor disciplinary record, he holds the Bundesliga record for the number of sendings-off for a goalkeeper.

Lehmann joined Arsenal on July 25, 2003 as a replacement for David Seaman, and played every match as Arsenal went unbeaten for the entire '03-04 FA Premier League campaign, becoming the first English club to accomplish this feat since the 1880s. However, Lehmann's confident, aggressive style of play, often coming out of his goal to intercept passes occasionally led to mistakes, such as in the title-winning match at local rivals Tottenham Hotspur when Lehmann pushed Tottenham striker Robbie Keane as the pair waited for a Tottenham corner, and made mistakes that led to both goals in Arsenal's Champions League defeat at home to Chelsea the same season.

By the middle of the 2004-05 season, Lehmann was no longer automatic first-choice, with Spaniard Manuel Almunia starting in several matches instead. However, Almunia made a series of mistakes himself, thus allowing Lehmann to regain his position. At the end of that season, as speculation again began to mount that he would be replaced over the summer, Lehmann cemented his position in the Arsenal goal with a man-of-the-match performance against Manchester United in the 2005 FA Cup final. He made several important saves and demonstrated great positional sense to keep the score 0-0 after extra time, and then crucially saved Paul Scholes' shot in the penalty shootout, which Arsenal won 5-4.

Lehmann had an outstanding 2005-06 season with Arsenal, making his 100th Premier League appearance for the club in their game against West Bromwich Albion on April 15, 2006. He was a key factor in his side's first-ever accession to the Champions League final; during their run Arsenal broke the record for the most consecutive clean sheets in the Champions League with ten, breaking the record of seven that Milan had set just one year before. That run formed the bulk of an 853-minute spell without conceding a goal, overtaking the CL record for an individual goalkeeper set by Edwin van der Sar.

Bayern Munich's Hasan Salihamidžić had been the last to net against Lehmann, in the 64th minute of a quarter-final first leg match on March 22, 2005; Lehmann kept a clean sheet in the second leg, and then a further seven during Arsenal's run in 2005-06 (Almunia played in the other three matches); the final clean sheet was earned in the semi-finals against Villarreal, after Lehmann saved an 89th minute Juan Román Riquelme penalty. Lehmann maintained his shutout run despite an ignominious end to his 2006 UEFA Champions League Final against FC Barcelona; with the score still at 0-0 he was sent off in the 18th minute for a professional foul after bringing down Samuel Eto'o, making him the first player to ever be sent off in a CL final, but it didn't stop him from being named the CL Goalkeeper of the Year for the 2005-06 season.

His remarkable run was finally ended on September 13, 2006 by Hamburger SV's Boubacar Sanogo, who scored a consolatory goal in the 89th minute of Arsenal's first group stage match of the 2006-07 CL season.

Personal information
Full name	Jens Lehmann
Date of birth	November 10, 1969 (age 37)
Place of birth	Essen, Germany
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 2¾ in)
Nickname	Mad Jens, Super Jens, Super Hands, The Hoff, The German, psycho,
Position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Arsenal
Number	1
Professional clubs
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1989-1998 1998-1998 1999-2003 2003-	Schalke A.C. Milan Dortmund Arsenal	274 (2) 005 (0) 129 (0) 116 (0)
National team
1998-	Germany	042 (0)