Daniel Baier (; born 18 May 1984) is a former 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 ...

who played as a

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 ...

Career

Born in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

, Baier first played for the youth team of

TSV 1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. 1860 Munich was one of the founding members o ...

. He generally plays an offensive midfield role. He played in his first league match against 1. FC Köln on 13 September 2003. He has played in the Under-20 German national team, his debut coming on 7 October 2005 against Wales.

Dieter Eilts Dieter Eilts (born 13 December 1964) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. After retiring as a player, he began a managerial career and also worked for SV Werder Bremen as director of the football academy. Play ...

has said about Daniel Baier: "Daniel is an individual talent. He plays a deadly passing game. If he continues in this way, he has a big future." On 31 January 2010, he left

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 returned to

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as ...

. On 20 September 2017, Baier was fined €20,000 and suspended for one Bundesliga game, as he made a masturbation gesture at

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red Bul ...

coach

Ralph Hasenhüttl Ralph Hasenhüttl (; born 9 August 1967) is an Austrian professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Premier League club Southampton. During his playing career, he played as a centre forward. Playing care ...

during the 1–0 victory against Leipzig the day before. After 355 competitive appearances for FC Augsburg, Baier was released by the club on 23 July 2020. Baier announced his retirement from professional football on 9 September 2020.

Personal life

His father Jürgen was also a footballer who played for

Darmstadt 98 Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was briefly known as ''Rasen-Sp ...

. His brother Benjamin, who is also a midfielder, currently plays for

Viktoria Aschaffenburg SV Viktoria 01 Aschaffenburg is a German football club based in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. Even though Aschaffenburg is located in Bavaria, Viktoria Aschaffenburg historically played its football in the Hessenliga (V) and the associated Hessian le ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* * 1984 births Living people Association football midfielders German footballers TSV 1860 Munich players TSV 1860 Munich II players VfL Wolfsburg players FC Augsburg players Germany under-21 international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia Regionalliga players {{Germany-footy-midfielder-1980s-stub