Bastian Schweinsteiger

Bastian Schweinsteiger - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Bastian Schweinsteiger

Bastian Schweinsteiger ( SHWYNE-shty-gər,; born 1 August 1984) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Earlier in his career, he primarily played as a wide midfielder before later switching to a central midfield role. Former Germany national team manager Joachim Löw has referred to Schweinsteiger as one of the greatest players the country has ever produced.

This profile of Bastian Schweinsteiger covers Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Chicago Fire, Retirement and International Career.

Schweinsteiger spent 17 seasons at Bayern Munich, playing in exactly 500 matches across all competitions and scoring 68 goals. His honours at the club include eight Bundesliga titles, seven DFB-Pokal titles, a UEFA Champions League title, a FIFA Club World Cup title and a UEFA Super Cup title. He joined Manchester United in 2015, playing sparingly for 18 months before moving to Chicago Fire. He announced his retirement from playing in October 2019.

Schweinsteiger played for the German national team from 2004 to 2016. He is Germany's fourth-most-capped player of all time, having earned 121 caps and scored 24 goals. He was selected in their squads for four European Championships and three World Cups, including their victory at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, when he was widely regarded as one of the most important contributors in Germany's campaign, playing an especially important role in defending Lionel Messi in the final. Following Philipp Lahm's international retirement on 2 September 2014, Schweinsteiger was named captain of the national team. He played his last match for Germany against Finland on 31 August 2016, after which he retired from international football.

Since his retirement as a player in 2019, Schweinsteiger has worked as an on-air football analyst for German television broadcaster ARD and its weekend programme Sportschau.

Bayern Munich of Bastian Schweinsteiger

Schweinsteiger signed with FC 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 one in football. 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. He initially earned a reputation for being a rebel off the pitch, making headlines for the wrong reasons but has since settled down.

During his first appearances in the titular eleven, he played left-back. After just two training sessions with the first team, coach Ottmar Hitzfeld gave Schweinsteiger his debut, at the age of 18, 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. He scored his first Bayern goal against VfL Wolfsburg in September 2003.

Surprisingly sent back to Bayern's reserve team by new coach Felix Magath at the beginning of the 2004–05 season, Schweinsteiger swiftly returned to play a role in the double-winning campaign and scored his inaugural Champions League goal in Bayern's quarter-final first leg defeat at Chelsea. Over the next three seasons, up until the end of 2007–08, Schweinsteiger made 135 appearances in all competitions for Bayern Munich (Champions League, Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal), scoring 10 goals in the process.

On 15 August 2008, Schweinsteiger scored the first Bundesliga goal of the 2008–09 season. In December that year, he extended his contract until 2012. Two years later, in December 2010, he extended his contract with Bayern until 2016, with the announcement came at the Allianz Arena following a 3–0 victory over St. Pauli.

On 25 April 2012, Schweinsteiger scored from the last and match-clinching penalty kick against Real Madrid to send Bayern through to the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final, where they would face Chelsea. The match, played at Bayern's Allianz Arena, ended 1–1 and went to a penalty shoot-out. With the shoot-out poised at 3–3, Petr Čech tipped Schweinsteiger's shot onto the post, allowing Didier Drogba to seal the title for Chelsea with the next kick.

In the 2012–13 season, Schweinsteiger performed considerably well, continuing his duties as central midfielder along with new signing Javi Martínez. On 6 April 2013, Schweinsteiger scored a backheel flick goal against Eintracht Frankfurt which sealed the Bundesliga title for Bayern. The season ended on a high for Schweinsteiger, as Bayern secured a treble of Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Champions League.

Schweinsteiger received the 2013 German player of the year due to his performance for Bayern Munich. He was described by then manager Jupp Heynckes as the best midfielder in the world and Heynckes wanted either Schweinsteiger, Frank Ribéry or Thomas Müller to win the Ballon d'Or.

He scored an equaliser goal in the match against Manchester United in the first leg of their 2013–14 UEFA Champions League quarter-final at Old Trafford but saw a red card later in that match.

He made his 2014–15 season debut in a 4–0 win against 1899 Hoffenheim. He came in for Mario Götze in the 78th minute. On 16 May 2015, with Bayern having already won the league, he scored the opening goal in a 2–1 defeat at SC Freiburg. On 23 May 2015, Schweinsteiger scored on his 500th appearance for Bayern in a 2–0 win over Mainz. This proved to be his last match with the club. He transferred to Manchester United on 13 July 2015, having been at Bayern for 17 years.

Manchester United of Bastian Schweinsteiger

On 13 July 2015, Manchester United completed the signing of Schweinsteiger on a three-year contract for a fee of €9 million (£6.5 million), reuniting him with his former Bayern coach Louis van Gaal. Manchester United had never before fielded a German in the first team; Markus Neumayr and Ron-Robert Zieler were at the club before him, but neither made it into the first team. Schweinsteiger was given shirt number 23 in pre-season, but switched to 31, which he wore at Bayern, before the official start to the season.

Schweinsteiger made his pre-season debut for Manchester United in a friendly match against Club América on 17 July 2015. United defeated the Mexican club 1–0 in Seattle. His Premier League debut came on 8 August, as a 60th-minute substitute for Michael Carrick as the season began with a 1–0 home victory over Tottenham Hotspur, being booked eight minutes into his first appearance for a foul on Nacer Chadli. On 28 November he scored his first goal for the club, equalising with a header in a 1–1 draw against Leicester City.

On 7 December 2015, Schweinsteiger was punished with a three-match retrospective ban by The Football Association for striking West Ham United's Winston Reid in the throat in their meeting two days earlier. In January 2016, he sustained a knee injury which sidelined him for two months, followed by medial knee ligament damage in mid-March which kept him off the field for the remainder of the season.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastian_Schweinsteiger), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.