He controls the midfield: he sends the passes and organizes the team. Though the players that everybody looked at were Podolski and Klose, what would they do without Torsten Frings?

The chorus of praise for the 29-year-old has become ever louder. Many experts credit the team’s run of 270 FIFA World Cup minutes without conceding a goal to Frings’ organisational skill in the enforcer position in front of the back four. “It’s a huge compliment, not only for me, but for the whole team,” the typically modest player explained, before adding in characteristically blunt fashion: “It should finally put an end to all that sniping about our weak defence.”

Frings rates as one of the less outspoken professional footballers, but when he does choose to open his mouth, he gets straight to the point. His less than flamboyant personality certainly prevented him making the breakthrough two seasons ago in a brief spell with Bayern Munich. Frings, never at ease with the incessant media circus surrounding Germany’s biggest club, packed his bags after just one term in Bavaria and returned to Bremen, the scene of his previous best run of form, and where he first earned a place in the national team.

He spent from 1997 to 2002 in the northern port city, where his best form culminated in a series of rock-solid displays in Germany’s surprise run to the Final at the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan. The player’s outstanding performances were all the more impressive given that squad injuries had forced him to occupy the unfamiliar position of right-back.

Source: WCoffsite