[Oliver_Kahn]

Oliver Kahn has insisted that Germany would have won the World Cup if he had been in goal.

Arsenal's Jens Lehmann was preferred to Kahn between the posts this summer and helped the host nation to the semi-finals, where they were beaten by eventual winners Italy.

But Kahn believes that logically he should have been first choice keeper.

"I'm not criticising what Jens Lehmann did, but with me Germany would have been world champions," he told weekly magazine Stern.

"I'm convinced of it because the way my career has evolved points in that direction.

"In 1994 with Karlsruhe I reached the semi-finals of the Uefa Cup - two years later I won this trophy with Bayern Munich.

"In 1999 I lost the UEFA Champions League final in the harshest circumstances before winning this competition two years later.

"Finally I lost the 2002 World Cup final. This logic, and I really believe in the law of series, should have continued at the 2006 World Cup."

Kahn, who retired from international football after the World Cup, said he had tried to explain his theory to World Cup coach Jurgen Klinsmann before the competition but 'he didn't understand or didn't want to understand'.

"I told him 'I don't understand why you won't admit that I'm right'," Kahn added.

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