He then moved on loan to Serie A club Inter Milan in January 2015, before signing six months later for Galatasaray where he also won the Turkish Cup of 2016.

[7][10] On 29 May 2013, Podolski scored the fastest goal in Germany national team history at that time, after just nine seconds of the 4–2 friendly win over Ecuador.

First team boss Marcel Koller, working on a shoestring budget, invited Podolski to train with the senior players and he made his top flight debut shortly afterwards on 22 November 2003.

In 2006, clubs such as Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, and Real Madrid manifested their interest in Podolski, even though he had a contract with 1.

On 1 June 2006, Podolski announced that a transfer agreement had been reached with Bayern Munich, allowing him to join the Bavarian side for the 2006–07 season.

On 26 October 2006, Podolski suffered a serious injury to his right ankle joint caused by teammate, Mark van Bommel, during a training session.

[37] After Giroud's three-game ban appeal was rejected,[38] Podolski began playing as a centre forward, starting with the 1–1 draw against Manchester United.

[43] Podolski returned for Arsenal against West Ham United in a 3–1 win on Boxing Day, scoring the team's third goal in the 79th minute.

However, a last minute own goal by Mathieu Flamini meant the game finished 2–2 and effectively ended Arsenal's hopes of lifting the Premier League title for another season.

[47] After winning the World Cup for Germany, Podolski and compatriots Per Mertesacker and Mesut Özil were excused by Arsenal from the 2014 Community Shield, which they won 3–0 against Manchester City.

[48] In November, Podolski spoke about his unrest with his current role with Arsenal and his lack of game time, saying: "Of course I am not happy with my situation right now.

"[49] On 5 January 2015, Arsenal announced that Podolski had completed a move to Serie A club Inter Milan on loan for the remainder of the 2014–15 season.

[52] Podolski was not named in Inter's squad list for the knockout stages of the UEFA Europa League with coach Roberto Mancini preferring Xherdan Shaqiri over the German international.

[68] He made his debut on 30 July, coming on as a substitute in a 3–1 league home defeat against Lech Poznań at the Arena Zabrze.

[73] In late 2003, after several impressive performances in his first few Bundesliga games, Polish media suggested then-Poland national team coach Paweł Janas should check Podolski out, as he was still eligible to play for Poland.

Janas ignored the request stating in one of the press interviews that "as for today we have much better strikers in Poland and I don't see a reason to call up a player just because he played one or two good matches in the Bundesliga.

By that time Podolski was still interested in representing Poland, but as the season progressed German media increasingly highlighted his performances to suggest he should be called up to the Germany national team.

At the end of the season Köln were relegated, but Podolski impressed so much, that he held his debut for Rudi Völler's Germany on 6 June 2004, at age 19, in Kaiserslautern against Hungary with a late substitute appearance.

Podolski was selected in the Germany squad for the 2006 World Cup, where he partnered Miroslav Klose as the attack duo in the starting lineup.

[citation needed] Germany finished third in the tournament, and while his teammate Miroslav Klose won the Golden Boot competition, Podolski's three goals tied him for second place with Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Fernando Torres, David Villa, Maxi Rodríguez, Hernán Crespo and Zinedine Zidane.

In a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying game against San Marino in Serravalle Podolski netted four goals in Germany's record 13–0 thrashing.

The goals put him in the lead in the Euro 2008 goal-scoring list for two days until David Villa scored a hat-trick for Spain against Russia.

When this backfired, he resumed his forward position in the UEFA Euro 2008 Final, but was unable to prevent Germany losing 1–0 to Spain.

In a controversial incident, Podolski was headbutted by Spanish midfielder David Silva, although this went unnoticed by the referee and his assistants, and went unpenalised.

On 6 September 2008, Podolski scored the opening two goals in Germany's first 2010 World Cup qualifier against Liechtenstein in Vaduz; a match that ended in a 6–0 victory for the Germans.

In the World Cup finals in Brazil, he appeared in the victories over USA and Portugal in the group stages, but did not play the full 90 minutes.

After the tournament, on 15 August, he announced his retirement from international football (effective 23 March 2017) saying he wants to shift his focus and spend more time with his family.

[135] One of his projects is a community day care centre for children located in a distressed part of Praga-Północ district in Warsaw, Poland, opened in 2014.

[140][141][142] In an interview Podolski said that the Polish Football Association never cared about him until he started playing for the German under-21 team and received coverage in the media.

[143] Podolski is a fan of KS Górnik Zabrze, a football team based 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from his place of birth.