The former player of the German national team, Bastian Schweinsteiger, some time ago announced his retirement from the gridiron at the age of 35. The last club he defended was the MLS team, Chicago Fire
Schweini announced the decision to retire through his social media account. In his statement, he expressed his gratitude to all his former colleagues and his wife who were former tennis stars, Ana Ivanovic.
During his career as a footballer, Schweini was one of the most successful midfielders. Several trophies and Individual awards have fulfilled his career.
Schweini began his career by joining FV Oberaudorf’s football school in 1990. Two years later, he studied at TSV Rosenheim until 1998.
When he was young, Schweini could have chosen skiing as his career since he was quite skilled in the sport. He has been trained by renowned German ski athlete, Felix Neureuther.
Schweini chose football when an offer came from Bayern Munich in 1998. However, Schweini still often skied in his spare time.
Schweini played in the Bayern FC junior team since the age of 14. During his four years in the junior team, he performed quite prominently and was able to present several titles.
In 2002, he made it to the Bayern Munich II team. Just a few months in the team, he has attracted the attention of Bayern’s first-team coach at the time, Ottmar Hitzfeld. Schweini was revealed as a substitute when he met RC Lens in the Champions League in November 2002.
It turned out that Schweini performed well and even made an assist. A month later, he immediately got a contract as a professional player at the German giants when he was 18 years old. In that season, FC Bayern won the Bundesliga title and the German Cup.
When he first played for the Bayern FC team, his position at that time was left-back or full-back. Then he was transferred to the left midfielder position to be able to withstand attacks from the opposing winger and assist the team’s attack from the left.
Also, at the beginning of his career at the club based in the Allianz Arena, Schweini was also known as a stubborn young man and often against the rules. Once, at the age of 18, a security guard at the Bayern Munich training complex caught Schweini red-handed in a whirlpool with a girl at 2 in the morning.
Schweini later admitted that it was his cousin he was taking around on the training ground.
In the 2003/04 season, he appeared more and more frequently for FC Bayern. It was a proud achievement as the club which dubbed as FC Hollywood had a lot of star players. If such a young player could join the first team, that would be an amazing achievement.
Schweini’s brilliance at the club certainly made him glimpsed into the national team. Germany coach at the time, Rudi Voller, included Schweini in the 2004 European Cup squad. Germany failed to qualify from the group stage. But the game of their young players, including Schweini, received high appreciation and was considered to have a bright future.
In the following years, Schweini increasingly showed his skill. His pampering was even brighter when he appeared at the 2006 World Cup in his country. He also became the target of many clubs. FC Bayern immediately enclosed Schweini by giving a new contract, which would expire in mid-2009.
Schweini’s greatness was increasingly shown for at the age of 22, he has played 41 times for Germany. At the age of 24, he has been touted as the legendary player of FC Bayern and Germany and one of the best midfielders the two teams have ever had.
Uniquely, Schweini more often plays as a right-wing at FC Bayern and left-wing midfielder in the German national team. However, since the arrival of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery at FC Bayern in 2009, Schweini’s position was transferred by the team’s coach at that time, Louis van Gaal, to the central midfielder. And from then on, he began to appear regularly as a midfielder.
In the 2012 champions league final, Schweini had experienced deep regret when his shot on penalties was failed by Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech. Schweini’s failure made Chelsea finally come out as champions after Didier Drogba became the decider of victory.
In the 2012/13 season, Schweini performed very well and continued his work as a central midfielder along with new signing Javi Martínez. He was described by the coach, Jupp Heynckes as the best midfielder in the world. In that season, Schweini also helped FC Bayern come out as The Champions league champion. He was also named Germany’s best player in 2013.
The highlight of Schweini’s career occurred in 2014 when he won the 2014 world cup in Brazil with the German national team. After Philipp Lahm retired from the national team, Schweini was appointed as the captain of the national team. He then played his last match for Germany against Finland on 31 August 2016, after which he retired from international football.
On May 23, 2015, Schweini scored in his 500th appearance for FC Bayern and this became his last match with the club. He spent 17 seasons at FC Bayern, playing in exactly 500 matches in all competitions and scoring 68 goals.
This player who was born on August 1, 1984, then moved to Man United. Only staying for one season and playing in 31 matches, Schweini was later released by MU. Chicago Fire became the next port for Schweini. During the three seasons there, he was quite successful by appearing as a major player.
Throughout his career with FC Bayern. Schweini won 8 Bundesliga titles, 7 DFB Pokal, one Champions League, and an inter-club world cup. While with the Red Devils, he won the FA cup.
With the national team, besides winning the 2014 World Cup, he also helped the team to finish third in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and the European Cup Runner-up in 2008. Overall he made 121 appearances for Die Mannschaft, making him the fourth-highest number of players to appear for his country and scored 24 goals.
Germany coach, Joachim Low, called Schweinsteiger “one of the best German players ever.”
“Bastian is a big player, a big personality. Always honest, always strict,” Low added. (Quoted from Foxsports)
While still actively playing, Schweini was often equated with Stefan Effenberg, the legendary player of Bayern Munich. Both are considered to have the same great skill, a similar style of play and can be placed in various positions in the middle.
He has a strong character, never surrender and has a spirit of a horse. Physically, their faces are also almost the same. The difference is, Effenberg is fairly temperamental, while Schweini is calmer and less emotional.
Now, however, Schweini is a naughty teenager who eventually became a world football legend.
