Bastian Schweinsteiger

This article's introduction section may not adequately summarize its contents. To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (August 2009)

Bastian Schweinsteiger
Personal information
Full name	Bastian Schweinsteiger
Date of birth	1 August 1984 (1984-08-01) (age 25)
Place of birth	Kolbermoor, West Germany
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Bayern Munich
Number	31
Youth career
0000–1992 1992–1998 1998–2002	FV Oberaudorf TSV 1860 Rosenheim Bayern Munich
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2002–2004 2002–	Bayern Munich II Bayern Munich	034 00(2) 197 0(21)
National team2
2004 2004–	Germany U-21 Germany	007 00(2) 072 0(19)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 16:30, 22 November 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 16:25, 19 November 2009 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Bastian Schweinsteiger (help·info) (born 1 August 1984 in Kolbermoor) is a German footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bayern Munich and Germany.

Career

Club career

Schweinsteiger signed for Bayern Munich as a youth team player on 1 July 1998 and rose through the club's youth sides. A talented youth ski racer, he had to decide between pursuing a professional career in skiing or football at the age of 14. Having won the German youth championship in July 2002, Schweinsteiger quickly earned a place in the reserves, producing a string of solid third division displays.

A left midfielder, who can also play on the right, he has a hard shot, great dribbling skills and is a specialist at set pieces. He can also play as a defensive midfielder or just behind the strikers. After just two training sessions with the first team, coach Ottmar Hitzfeld gave Schweinsteiger his debut as a late substitute in a UEFA Champions League game against RC Lens in November 2002, and the youngster made an immediate impact, creating a goal for Markus Feulner within minutes. He signed a professional contract the following month and went on to appear in 14 Bundesliga games in 2002–03, helping Bayern to a league and cup double. The next season he played 26 Bundesliga games.

Schweinsteiger scored his first Bayern goal against VfL Wolfsburg in September 2003.

Surprisingly sent back to Bayern's amateurs by new coach Felix Magath at the beginning of the 2004–05 season despite his international exploits of the summer in the Confederations Cup, Schweinsteiger swiftly returned to play a role in the double-winning campaign and scored in Bayern's Champions League quarter-final first-leg defeat at Chelsea.

Over the next three seasons, up until the end of 2007–08, Bastian made 135 appearances in all competitions for Bayern Munich (UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup), scoring 10 goals in the process.

On 15 August 2008, Schweinsteiger scored the first Bundesliga goal of the 2008–09 season. He extended his contract at Bayern until 2012 on 18 November 2008.

International career

He made his international debut in 2004 in a friendly against Hungary. Bayern's number 31 earned rave reviews for his Euro 2004 performances in Portugal, showing combative skills and even setting up the opening goal for once Bayern teammate Michael Ballack in Germany's 2-1 loss against the Czech Republic.

He scored his first two international goals on 8 June 2005 against Russia and scored his first goal at a major tournament against Tunisia on June 18, 2005 at the Confederations Cup in Germany. This was followed up by two strikes in the third place play-off game at the 2006 World Cup, also in his home country. He nearly scored a hat-trick as he caused Armando Petit's own goal to make the score 3-1.

During Euro 2008 qualifiers, he scored two goals en route to a 13-0 win over San Marino in San Marino. He scored the third goal in Germany's 4-1 win over Slovakia in Bratislava.

At the age of 22, he had already played 41 matches for the German national team, a record for any German player at the time. This record was soon broken, however, by Lukas Podolski who was capped 44 times at the age of 22. At the same age, Lothar Matthäus (the German all-time record holder with 150 caps) had only played 13 times for the German national team. To this day Germany have never lost a game when he has scored.

In the Euro 2008 group stage he was sent off in Germany's second match of the tournament against Croatia, which ended in a 2-1 defeat. As in Germany's quest to win European Cup, he was again instrumental against Portugal by scoring the first goal in Germany's Euro 2008 Quarter-final match against them. He also assisted goals by Miroslav Klose and Michael Ballack from free kicks. Germany ended up winning the match 3-2 to advance to the semi-finals. He also scored his country's first goal in the 3-2 semi-final victory against Turkey. He captained the German team in a friendly against the United Arab Emirates.

Career statistics

Club performance

As of 25 November 2009 (2009 -11-25)^[update]

International goals

Bastian Schweinsteiger: International Goals^[2]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	8 June 2005	Borussia-Park, Mönchengladbach, Germany	Russia	1 - 1	2 - 2	Friendly
2.	8 June 2005	Borussia-Park, Mönchengladbach, Germany	Russia	2 - 1	2 - 2	Friendly
3.	18 June 2005	Rhein-Energie Stadion, Cologne, Germany	Tunisia	2 - 0	3 - 0	FIFA Confederations Cup 2005
4.	29 June 2005	Zentralstadion, Leipzig, Germany	Mexico	2 - 1	4 - 3	FIFA Confederations Cup 2005
5.	22 March 2006	Westfalenstadion, Dortmund, Germany	United States	1 - 0	4 - 1	Friendly
6.	30 May 2006	BayArena, Leverkusen, Germany	Japan	2 - 2	2 - 2	Friendly
7.	2 June 2006	Borussia-Park, Mönchengladbach, Germany	Colombia	2 - 0	3 - 0	Friendly
8.	8 July 2006	Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, Stuttgart, Germany	Portugal	1 - 0	3 - 1	FIFA World Cup 2006
9.	8 July 2006	Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, Stuttgart, Germany	Portugal	3 - 0	3 - 1	FIFA World Cup 2006
10.	6 September 2006	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	0 - 2	0 - 13	UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifying
11.	6 September 2006	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	0 - 7	0 - 13	UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifying
12.	7 October 2006	Ostseestadion, Rostock, Germany	Georgia	1 - 0	2 - 0	Friendly
13.	11 October 2006	Tehelné pole, Bratislava, Slovakia	Slovakia	0 - 3	1 - 4	UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifying
14.	19 June 2008	St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland	Portugal	1 - 0	3 - 2	UEFA Euro 2008
15.	25 June 2008	St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland	Turkey	1 - 1	3 - 2	UEFA Euro 2008
16.	20 August 2008	Frankenstadion, Nuremberg, Germany	Belgium	1 - 0	2 - 0	Friendly
17.	6 September 2008	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz, Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein	0 - 4	0 - 6	FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifying
18.	28 March 2009	Zentralstadion, Leipzig, Germany	Liechtenstein	3 - 0	4 - 0	FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifying
19.	12 August 2009	Tofik Bakhramov Stadium, Baku, Azerbaijan	Azerbaijan	0 - 1	0 - 2	FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifying

Honours

Club

• Bayern Munich
  • Bundesliga Champion: 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008
  • DFB-Pokal: 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008
  • DFB-Ligapokal: 2004, 2007
  • German U-17 championship: 2001
  • German U-19 championship: 2002

National Team

• FIFA Confederations Cup Third Place: 2005
• FIFA World Cup Third Place: 2006
• UEFA European Football Championship Runner-up: 2008

Individual

• Man of the Match: for his performance in the Game for Third Place of Germany versus Portugal (8 July), FIFA World Cup 2006
• Man of the Match: for his performance in the Quarter-final Game of Germany versus Portugal (19 June), UEFA Euro 2008

Personal

Schweinsteiger lives with his girlfriend Sarah Brandner in Munich. His fans nicknamed him "Schweini" or "Basti" to distinguish him from his brother. His elder brother Tobias is professional footballer who plays for third-tier side SpVgg Unterhaching.

References

External links

• www.bastian-schweinsteiger.de Official Website (German)
• Profile at FCBayern.de
• Career stats at Fussballdaten.de (German)

Germany Squad v • d • e Germany squad – UEFA Euro 2004 1 Kahn • 2 Hinkel • 3 Friedrich • 4 Wörns • 5 Nowotny • 6 Baumann • 7 Schweinsteiger • 8 Hamann • 9 Bobic • 10 Kurányi • 11 Klose • 12 Lehmann • 13 Ballack • 14 Brdarić • 15 Kehl • 16 Jeremies • 17 Ziege • 18 Ernst • 19 Schneider • 20 Podolski • 21 Lahm • 22 Frings • 23 Hildebrand • Coach: Völler v • d • e Germany squad – 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup Third Place 1 Kahn • 2 Hinkel • 3 Friedrich • 4 Huth • 5 Owomoyela • 6 Engelhardt • 7 Schweinsteiger • 8 Frings • 9 Hanke • 10 Deisler • 11 Brdarić • 12 Lehmann • 13 Ballack • 14 Asamoah • 15 Ernst • 16 Hitzlsperger • 17 Mertesacker • 18 Borowski • 19 Schneider • 20 Podolski • 21 Schulz • 22 Kurányi • 23 Hildebrand • Coach: Klinsmann v • d • e Germany squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup Third Place 1 Lehmann • 2 Jansen • 3 Friedrich • 4 Huth • 5 Kehl • 6 Nowotny • 7 Schweinsteiger • 8 Frings • 9 Hanke • 10 Neuville • 11 Klose • 12 Kahn • 13 Ballack • 14 Asamoah • 15 Hitzlsperger • 16 Lahm • 17 Mertesacker • 18 Borowski • 19 Schneider • 20 Podolski • 21 Metzelder • 22 Odonkor • 23 Hildebrand • Coach: Klinsmann v • d • e Germany squad – UEFA Euro 2008 Runners-up 1 Lehmann • 2 Jansen • 3 Friedrich • 4 Fritz • 5 Westermann • 6 Rolfes • 7 Schweinsteiger • 8 Frings • 9 Gómez • 10 Neuville • 11 Klose • 12 Enke • 13 Ballack • 14 Trochowski • 15 Hitzlsperger • 16 Lahm • 17 Mertesacker • 18 Borowski • 19 Odonkor • 20 Podolski • 21 Metzelder • 22 Kurányi • 23 Adler • Coach: Löw