Anton Levi Stach (born 15 November 1998) is a German professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sportverein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05, Mainz 05 () or simply Mainz (), is a German sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. 1. FSV Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the top ...

and the Germany national team.

Club career

Anton Stach was born in the Lower Saxonian town of

Buchholz in der Nordheide Buchholz in der Nordheide (Northern Low Saxon: ''Bookholt'') is the largest town in the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 25 km southwest of Hamburg. Geography Buchholz is home to the Brunsberg, at ...

at the

Hamburg Metropolitan Region The Hamburg Metropolitan Region (German: Metropolregion Hamburg) is a metropolitan area centred around the city of Hamburg in northern Germany, consisting of eight districts (''Landkreise'') in the federal state of Lower Saxony, six districts ('' ...

and joined Buchholzer FC during his childhood. Since 2010, he has participated to the training at

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

once a week, before he joined one year later the youth academy (Nachwuchsleistungszentrum) of Bremen-based. Stach has played for Werder Bremen until the B-youth and has played later at JFV Nordwest. Afterwards, he joined the U19-team of

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its football section. History Foundation to WW2 The cl ...

. For the 2017–18 season, the Buchholz-born Stach joined SSV Jeddeloh from Regionalliga Nord, the fourth-highest level in Germany. After a one year, he moved to

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

and played for the second team of Wolfsburg-based, also in the Regionalliga Nord. With the second team of VfL Wolfsburg, he has reached the play-off round for the promotion to the professional 3. Liga, the third-highest level of German football, but the Lower Saxonians lost against the second team of

FC Bayern München Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. In the 2020–21 season, Anton Stach left Lower Saxony and joined Franconia-based Greuther Fürth from the second German division, where he signed a contract until summer 2023. Stach helped the team achieve promotion to the Bundesliga. In 2021, he joined

on a deal until summer 2024.

International career

In March 2021, Stach was called up for the

Germany national under-21 football team The Germany national under-21 football team represents the under-21s of Germany in the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship and is controlled by the German Football Association (DFB), the governing body of football in Germany. Before the ...

for the group stage of the

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021) was the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (26th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football ch ...

. The matches were broadcast live in Germany at ProSieben and ProSieben MAXX and his father Matthias Stach was the commentator during the group stage. The player was substituted in the second match against the Netherlands and his father has said "''Blamier' mich nicht, Junge!''" (in English "''Don't embarrass me, boy!''" or "''Don't embarrass me, son!''"). Germany advanced past the group stage as Stach made two appearances. In July 2021, he was also a part of the German squad for the knockout stage of the tournament, playing in all three matches as Germany reached the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, where they won 1–0 against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Stach was called up to the senior Germany squad for friendly matches against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

on 26 and 29 March 2022, respectively. Stach was substituted in the 2–0 win against Israel in Sinsheim in the 64th minute for

Julian Weigl Julian Weigl (born 8 September 1995) is a German professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach, on loan from Benfica. He also represents the Germany national team. Club career 1860 M ...

Personal life

Anton's father, Matthias Stach, is a sports commentator in Germany. Anton’s sisters, Emma and Lotta, play basketball.

References

External links

Profile
at the 1. FSV Mainz 05 website * * * * 1998 births Living people People from Harburg (district) Footballers from Lower Saxony German men's footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Olympic footballers for Germany Germany men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders SSV Jeddeloh players VfL Wolfsburg II players SpVgg Greuther Fürth players 1. FSV Mainz 05 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics {{Germany-footy-midfielder-1990s-stub