Thomas Hitzlsperger
Thomas Hitzlsperger West Ham United in March 2011
Thomas Hitzlsperger ( born April 5, 1982 in Munich ) is a former German football player. The greatest success of his career was winning the German championship with VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga season 2006/07. In addition Hitzlsperger reached with the German national team at the 2006 World Cup third place and was at the 2008 European Championships European Vice Champion.
- 3.1 club
- 3.2 national team
Career
Association
He began his career at VfB forest inning. In 1989 he left the club and moved to the youth department of FC Bayern Munich, before moving to English Premier League club Aston Villa in 2000.
After he had played there in the youth team, he made his debut on 13 January 2001, the 0-3 home defeat against Liverpool in the league. By the end of the season it was his only use for Villa. At the beginning of the season 2001 /02 Hitzlsperger was awarded to the Chesterfield FC. But after two months, the new coach Graham Taylor ordered him back to Birmingham since at Aston Villa, some players had failed injured. From then on he played in the regular team and became performers and audience favorite. Overall, the footed completed 99 games, scored eight goals and earned due to its fire power the nickname " The Hammer Hitz ".
Before the season 2005/ 06 Hitzlsperger moved to VfB Stuttgart free transfer and signed a two-year contract. On opening day, August 6, 2005 Hitzlsperger made his Bundesliga debut against MSV Duisburg. On 16 April 2006, he scored 96 his first Bundesliga goal in the match in Hanover. In August 2007, his contract was extended until the end of June 2010. He scored in the last two matchdays of the season 2006/ 07 in the games at VfL Bochum and Energie Cottbus against each the important 1:1 on the way to the German championship, he could win 19 May 2007 with his team. Its that day scored against Cottbus equalizer, in which he volleyed a corner of his goal Pavel Pardo from a distance of about 20 meters transformed, is considered one of the most spectacular and important goals on the way to the fifth national title in Stuttgart. In total he scored in this championship season in 30 league games scoring seven goals and thus claimed as a midfielder along with Roberto Hilbert behind the strikers Mario Gomez and Cacau third place in the internal association scorer in the championship team of VfB.
After the dismissal of Fernando Meira as team captain Hitzlsperger has been appointed as the new captain of VfB ahead of the 2008 /09 season. His 100th league game he played 14 February 2009 against Hannover 96 On 1 December 2009 dismissed VfB team boss Markus Babbel Hitzlsperger from the captaincy. This was due to a sustained decline for first half of the season 2009/10.
31 January 2010, Hitzlsperger joined the Italian first division club Lazio. There he was, on 7 February 2010 the 0-1 home defeat against Catania Calcio his debut. Overall, he played six games for Lazio in Serie A. On 38 Round Hitzlsperger scored in a 3-1 win against Udinese with the 1-0 lead his first and only league goal in Italy.
For the 2010/11 season Hitzlsperger moved to the English Premier League club West Ham United. However, due to a severe hamstring injury he missed the start of the season and fell several weeks. In his first competitive start, in the FA Cup first knockout round tie against second division side Burnley FC, he scored with the intermediate 1-0 his first goal for West Ham; in the league this succeeded 5 March 2011 ( 29th Round ) 3-0 home victory over Stoke City. At the end of the season West Ham relegated, after which Hitzlsperger agreed with the club over a contract.
Initially he found a new club in the weeks after the end of the season, committed in August 2011, VfL Wolfsburg Hitzlsperger. On 19 August 2011, he made his debut for VfL at 1:4 against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the starting lineup. After the season 2012 until 2014 current contract was terminated with Hitzlsperger at the request of the player in mutual agreement.
After he had previously been impaired since March 2012 due to injuries in the ankle and a lateral meniscus scribe, he graduated from the end of September 2012, a trial with English first division club FC Everton. In early October 2012, he debuted in the U -21 Premier League for Everton and was over 90 minutes on the court, without signing a contract. On October 19, 2012 Hitzlsperger was finally obliged Everton until January 2013. On November 10, 2012, the 11th matchday of the Premier League season 2012/13, Hitzlsperger was also the first time for Everton in the Premier League action, as he in the home game against Sunderland (2-1) in the 86th minute came in to replace Nikica Jelavic. In January 2013 his contract was extended until the end of the season 2012/13.
On September 3, 2013 Hitzlsperger ended his active career. The decision was " a result of a process with many club bills and some injuries ."
National
Hitzlsperger played on 9 October 2004 in Tehran against Iran for the first time for the senior team. After rather mediocre performance in the past season was his nomination for the German squad at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, when he was only used in the match for third place, as a surprise. In the European Championship qualifier against San Marino on 6 September 2006 Hitzlsperger scored his first two international goals. Since then he counted under Joachim Löw to a fixed size in the dress of the DFB.
On March 28, 2007 in a friendly against Denmark Hitzlsperger wore the captain's armband for the first time the German national soccer team.
For the European Football Championship 2008, he was appointed to the levy of the German team coach Löw, in which he came in five of six games for use: twice in the first round, the quarter-final against Portugal in the semi-final against Turkey, in which he gave the winning goal by Philipp Lahm prepared in the 90th minute, and in the final against Spain.
Although it had been used in the successful World Cup qualifying for the German team in 2008/ 09 in nine out of ten games, Hitzlsperger was no longer considered for the extended squad of World Cup 2010.
On 11 August 2010 he played as captain also against Denmark, as after the World Cup, most regular players were rested, his total of 52 and at the same time last game for the German national team.
Personal and social Engament
Hitzlsperger was born in 1982 as the youngest of seven children in Munich and grew up in the forest district Inninger Wagmühle. He has five brothers and one sister. In 1998 he finished his school career with the average maturity and then learned to 2003, the profession of office businessman.
Besides his footballing activity, Hitzlsperger operated in various social projects with anti-racist focus. He regularly writes articles for the fault detector, an initiative of time online against right-wing extremism in Germany. From 2009 to 2013 he was interlocutor for the column Everything but football is the weekly newspaper Die Zeit.
In addition, he supports the club Show Your Face! For a cosmopolitan Germany eV, the nationwide campaigns against xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and right-wing violence. In addition, he is involved in the project UBUNTU Africa, which cares for HIV -positive children in South Africa.
In an interview with the newspaper "Die Zeit" said Hitzlsperger in January 2014: "I express myself to my homosexuality, because I want to advance the discussion of homosexuality among professional athletes ." He was the first professional football player who publicly declared to be gay. Hitzlspergers step has been praised by athletes, sports officials and politicians and found in the national and international press attention.
Achievements
Association
- German Junior B Champion 1997
- German Champion 2007
- Finalist in the DFB Cup 2007
National
- Confed Cup Third 2005
- World Cup Third: 2006
- European Championship runner-up: 2008
Awards
- Player of the Month: April 2007, November 2007
- Julius -Hirsch prize: 2011