UEFA.com works better on other browsers
For the best possible experience, we recommend using Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge.

K is for...

uefa.com's A to Z countdown to the UEFA Champions League continues with some special Ks.

As uefa.com Action's A to Z countdown to the UEFA Champions League final on 25 May continues, it is time for some great Ks.

A goalkeeper of giant proportions, Oliver Kahn stands nearly 1.9m tall and weighs 90kg - an imposing figure indeed as he has been for Germany and FC Bayern München since joining in 1994 from Karlsruher SC.

Voted the world's best goalkeeper in 1999 and 2001, Kahn's greatest moment came when his goalkeeping brilliance helped Bayern to a penalty shoot-out victory in the 2000/01 Champions League final against Valencia CF at the San Siro. European glory has evaded the 35-year-old Kahn since then, who has said he wants to play for at least another five years.

He played every minute of this season's Champions League campaign but was beaten four times at Stamford Bridge in the quarter-final first leg against Chelsea FC. With Bayern winning another Bundesliga title this season, Kahn is guaranteed another chance in the world's greatest club competition.

A tireless worker who is blessed with creativity, good passing skills and a fine shot, attacking midfield player Kaká, now 23, moved to Italy in the summer of 2003 to join AC Milan vowing to "combine Brazilian fantasy with the tactical discipline of European football".

The South American burst on to the scene last season and his first Champions League goal came in a 1-0 win at Club Brugge KV on Matchday 4. He saved his best performance for the quarter-final first leg against RC Deportivo La Coruña with his two goals helping Milan win the first leg 4-1, but amazingly the Italian side still went out after losing the second leg.

Kaká's ten league goals did help Milan to their 17th Scudetto in 2003/04, and he has continued where he left off this season, scoring twice in Milan's 4-0 win against FC Shakhtar Donetsk on Matchday 5 to see his side safely through to the knockout stages.

Tough tackling as a player, tough talking as a coach, Ronald Koeman has seen it all and done it all in a glittering career. Formerly a player with AFC Ajax, the club he would later return to coach, he moved to PSV Eindhoven in 1986 where he won his first European Champion Clubs' Cup winners' medal.

His second followed four years later with FC Barcelona in the season that preceded the creation of the Champions League, but despite scoring three goals on the way to the final of the competition two seasons later, Barcelona were to fall at the final hurdle, losing 4-0 against Milan.

Until recently Koeman was coach of Ajax but after being knocked out of this season's Champions League, and then bowing out of the UEFA Cup after a defeat against AJ Auxerre, Koeman resigned from his position after three-and-a-half years in charge at the Amsterdam ArenA.

Selected for you