Michael Schulz (born 3 September 1961) is a German former 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

central defender 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 ...

. He played 243 matches in the

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 ...

for

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

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, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

and

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern () or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to football, the club also operates in sev ...

and scored eight goals.

Club career

Schulz was born in

Witten Witten () is a city with almost 100,000 inhabitants in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area. Bordering municipalities * Bochum * Dortmun ...

. He had the reputation of being one of the hardest defenders in the Bundesliga. He collected 48 yellow and 2 red cards. He was a favourite at

and

, his fans regularly chanting "Schuuuuuuuuuulz" whenever he had the ball. Fellow Bremen player

Christian Schulz Christian Schulz (born 1 April 1983) is a German former professional footballer who played as a centre back or left-back. Club career Schulz joined Werder Bremen in 1995 at the age of twelve and stepped up to the reserve side, playing in the ...

and fellow Dortmund player

Nico Schulz Nico Schulz (; born 1 April 1993) is a German professional footballer who last played as a left-back for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund. Club career Schulz played for BSC Rehberge Berlin until 2000 before joining Hertha BSC at the age of sev ...

, who bear no relationship to him, were regularly celebrated like this because of him. In Panini's World Championship collector's cards edition 1994 he is described as "an anchor as header, strong in duels, feared for his wide throw-ins. The Charles Bronson type of guy overdoes toughness." Michael Schulz made nearly 250 (West) German top-flight appearances.

International career

He played seven times for the German national team from 1992 to 1993. He also competed for West Germany at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

Post-playing career

Schulz works as a player agent at the Hamburg-based

sport management Sport management is the field of business dealing with sports and recreation. Sports management involves any combination of skills that correspond with planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, or evaluating of any organiz ...

agency Extratime. He's additionally in the field for several German TV channels and since August 2009 also as a field reporter for Deutsche Telekom's football channel Liga total.

"Curse" of Michael Schulz

Although Schulz was one of the best defenders of his generation, top titles eluded him. The special sting in his case was the fact that each team he played for was highly successful ''after'' he was transferred away, leading to speculation he was cursed. *1. FC Kaiserslautern (1987–1989): in this period, FCK was a scrub team which constantly flirted with relegation. After Schulz was shipped away, FCK won the German Cup in 1990 and the German Championship in 1991. *Borussia Dortmund (1989–1994): BVB was a midfield team when Schulz was there. But then, Schulz feuded with

Matthias Sammer Matthias Sammer (; born 5 September 1967) is a German football official and former player and coach. He played as a defensive midfielder and later in his career as a sweeper. With Borussia Dortmund as a player, Sammer won the Bundesliga and DF ...

and was sent away, just before BVB won two German Championships in 1995 and 1996 and 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 competi ...

in 1997. *Werder Bremen (1994–1997): Schulz joined Bremen just after Werder had won two German Championships and the German Cup. During his period, Werder suffered a drought and won nothing, apart from the

1994 DFB-Supercup The 1994 DFB-Supercup, known as the Panasonic DFB-Supercup for sponsorship purposes, was the eighth DFB-Supercup, an annual football match contested by the winners of the previous season's Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal competitions. The match was pl ...

. However, in 1999, Werder won the German Cup again after Schulz had left. In a 1997 issue of the German football magazine ''

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (sports magazine), in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the word used i ...

'', published when Schulz announced his retirement, he was asked in the column ''Mal ehrlich'' (Now, seriously), whether Bremen, now that Schulz was stopping, would finally win something. He answered, "This is a sure-fire tip! I'd bet on it anytime", acknowledging the existence of his jinx.

Honours

Borussia Dortmund * DFL-Supercup:

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

finalist:

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Werder Bremen * DFL-Supercup:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

West Germany Olympic * Olympic bronze medal:

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

Germany *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

runner-up: 1992 *

1993 U.S. Cup The 1993 U.S. Cup was a round robin soccer tournament played in June 1993 and organized by the United States Soccer Federation. The United States hosted Brazil, England and Germany; all three of those countries were playing in their only U.S. C ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schulz, Michael 1961 births Living people People from Witten Footballers from Arnsberg (region) German men's footballers Men's association football defenders Germany men's international footballers VfB Oldenburg players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Borussia Dortmund players SV Werder Bremen players Bundesliga players Olympic footballers for West Germany West German men's footballers Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics UEFA Euro 1992 players Olympic bronze medalists for West Germany Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics