Richard Kitzbichler (born 12 January 1974) is an Austrian 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 le ...

who played as a midfielder.

Club career

Kitzbichler was born in Wörgl, Tyrol. He started his career in 1992 with FC Wacker Innsbruck in the

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

. In 1997, he signed a contract with SV Austria Salzburg and stayed there until 2002. He spent one season with Hamburger SV in the

German 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 footbal ...

, and then returned to Austria. From 2003 he played for FK Austria Wien, until 2005 when he joined Australian A-League club Melbourne Victory. After a highly successful 2005, the popular Kitzbichler agreed to return to the club he left in 2002 to take up a playing and coaching role. In January 2006, Kitzbichler accepted a transfer back to his former club of Salzburg (now known as Red Bull Salzburg due to a corporate takeover), thus ending his time as one of the pioneering members of the new Melbourne football club. He helped Red Bull Salzburg's amateur side, Red Bull Salzburg II, achieve promotion from the Austrian Regionalliga West to the Second Division of the Bundesliga. He retired from active football in May 2009.

International career

Kitzbichler made his debut for Austria in April 1996 against Hungary but was ignored for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. He earned 17 caps, no goals scored. His last international was a May 2002 friendly match against Germany.

Coaching career

Kitzbichler was member of the coaching staff of FC Red Bull Salzburg where he worked as video analyst, and for a couple of month as assistant coach. In 2017, Roger Schmidt brought Kitzbichler to Beijing. In August 2019, he was announced as first team assistant coach of Premier League club Southampton, working alongside . On 7 November 2022, Kitzbichler departed the club alongside Hasenhüttl. On 4 September 2023, he joined

Bayern Munich 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 ...

's sporting department.

Career statistics

Honours

Austria Wien *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

: 2004–05 *

Austrian Supercup The Austrian Supercup (German: ÖFB-Supercup) was a Association football, football competition held annually from 1986 until 2004 between the winners of the Austrian Football Bundesliga and the Austrian Cup. 19 editions were played during the sho ...

: 2004 Austria Salzburg *

: 1997

References

External links

Richard Kitzbichler recalls his Victory days

Kitzbichler: That's how it is in the realm of means

Richard Kitzbichler
at Austria Archiv * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kitzbichler, Richard 1974 births Living people People from Kufstein District Austrian men's footballers Austria men's international footballers FC Wacker Innsbruck players FC Tirol Innsbruck players FC Red Bull Salzburg players Hamburger SV players FK Austria Wien players Melbourne Victory FC players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Bundesliga players A-League Men players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Austrian expatriate sportspeople in China Austrian expatriate sportspeople in England Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Tyrol (state) Southampton F.C. non-playing staff Beijing Guoan F.C. non-playing staff FC Bayern Munich non-playing staff