Florian Grillitsch (born 7 August 1995) is an Austrian 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 ...

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

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

TSG Hoffenheim Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft 1899 Hoffenheim e.V., or simply TSG 1899 Hoffenheim or just Hoffenheim () is a German professional football club based in Hoffenheim, a village of Sinsheim municipality, Baden-Württemberg. Originally founded in 1899 ...

and the Austria national team.

Career

Early career

Born in

Neunkirchen, Austria Neunkirchen () is the capital of the district of Neunkirchen in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. As of 2020 it has a population of 12,721. History Neunkirchen is one of the oldest settlements in the Vienna Basin. It has been permanently se ...

on 7 August 1995, Grillitsch played for SVSF Pottschach and

St. Pölten ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

in his youth football career.

Werder Bremen

2013–15

Grillitsch joined

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 ...

on 1 July 2013. He split the 2013–14 season between the Werder Bremen U19's youth team and

Werder Bremen II SV Werder Bremen II is the reserve team of SV Werder Bremen. It plays in Regionalliga, the fourth level of the German football league system, and has qualified for the first round of the DFB-Pokal on nineteen occasions. It also has won the Germ ...

. He made 15 appearances in the A-Junioren-Bundesliga Nord/Nordost scoring 11 goals and made five appearances in the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord ( en, Regional League North) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regional ...

for Werder Bremen II. In the 2014–15 season, Grillitsch made 26 appearances scoring nine goals for Werder's reserve team.

2015–16 season

Grillitsch made his first team debut during the 2015–16 season. He played the full 120 minutes including extra-time in the 2–0 win against

Würzburger Kickers Würzburger Kickers is a German association football club playing in Würzburg, Bavaria. In pre-World War II football, the club competed briefly at the highest level in the Bezirksliga Bayern, and during the war, in the Gauliga Bayern. Post-war, ...

in the first round of the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

on 8 August 2015, notably assisting

Anthony Ujah Anthony Ujah (born 14 October 1990) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a forward for German club Eintracht Braunschweig and the Nigeria national team. Early life Ujah grew up in the little town of Ugbokolo in Nigeria's Benue ...

for 1–0. His first

match was a 3–0 loss to

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

on matchday one on 15 August 2015. He replaced the veteran

Clemens Fritz Clemens Fritz (born 7 December 1980) is a German former professional footballer who played as a right-back and as a defensive midfielder. He is mostly known for his 11-year spell at Werder Bremen. Having begun his career at Rot-Weiß Erfurt an ...

after 70 minutes at 2–0. He also played for Werder Bremen II during the 2015–16 season. Grillitsch achieved his first assist in the

as Werder beat Mainz 3–1 on 24 October 2015 setting up Fin Bartels for the third goal. He played the full 90 minutes. Four days later, Grillitsch prominently featured in Werder's 1–0 second-round DFB-Pokal victory over 1. FC Köln, providing a major goal-scoring chance for Ujah, playing multiple through-balls and almost scoring. Afterwards, he was voted "Man of the match" by the club's fans.

2016–17 season

On 18 March 2017, Grillitsch scored his second goal of the 2016–17 season in a 3–0 win against

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, a match that saw all three of Werder Bremen's Austrian players score in the club's highest win of the season.

1899 Hoffenheim

Grillitsch with Hoffenheim in May 2019 On 16 January 2017, Grillitsch signed a contract with 1899 Hoffenheim until 2021, starting from the 2017–18 season. He made his debut for the club in the league match against

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

(1–1 draw) on August 26, 2017. Grillitsch scored his first goal for 1899 Hoffenheim on November 2 that year in the UEFA Europa League against Istanbul Başakşehir. However, Hoffenheim finished last in the group behind Istanbul Başakşehir,

SC Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese f ...

and PFK Ludogorets. Things went better in the

, with a fourth-place finish in 2017-18, and a group stage spot in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. The following seasons, Grillitsch finished eighth, seventh, eleventh and eighth again with Hoffenheim, in his five seaosns at the club, where he clocked up 151 appearances with eight goals and eleven assists. Grillitsch was a starter in the vast majority of those matches. But in the summer of 2022, Grillitsch let his contract expire with the club.

Ajax and Hoffenheim again

After moving to then Dutch champions

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

in the summer of 2022, returned to Hoffenheim after a year when the Amsterdam giants suffered a poor season with a third-place finish.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Austria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Grillitsch goal.''

References

External links

Profile
at the AFC Ajax website {{DEFAULTSORT:Grillitsch, Florian Living people 1995 births Men's association football midfielders Austrian men's footballers Austria men's international footballers Austria men's youth international footballers Austria men's under-21 international footballers Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Eredivisie players SV Werder Bremen players SV Werder Bremen II players TSG 1899 Hoffenheim players AFC Ajax players UEFA Euro 2020 players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands People from Neunkirchen District, Austria Footballers from Lower Austria Austrian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands