Steffen Hofmann (born 9 September 1980) is a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

coach and a former player, who played most of his career for

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

of 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 ...

. He played as an attacking midfielder. He works as a sports coordinator for

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

Club career

In his early years, Hofmann played for the youth team of his home town

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg ...

before joining the

Bayern Munich Junior Team The FC Bayern Munich Junior Team is the youth academy for German football club FC Bayern Munich. The Junior Team was created in 1902 and restructured in 1995. It has educated many players who have become regulars in the Bundesliga and Germany. ...

in 1997. After leading the team to a championship and a runner-up finish in the German Youth Leagues, he was promoted to the second team of Bayern Munich in 2000. After scoring 12 goals in 36 games for the second team, he got a chance to play for

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 first team on 27 October 2001 in their game against

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ball ...

, coming on as a substitute for Claudio Pizarro in the 90th minute. This was his only game for the first team. In 2002, Hofmann joined the Austrian team

and quickly became a fan favourite. He also formed the league's best midfield duo along with

Andreas Ivanschitz Andreas Ivanschitz ( hr, Ivančić; born 15 October 1983) is an Austrian retired footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. During the career, Ivanschitz played for Rapid Wien, Red Bull Salzburg, Panathinaikos, 1.FSV Mainz 05, Levante ...

and the two led the team to its 31st league championship in 2005 and to the group stage of 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 2006. After finishing last in their group and the transfer of his teammate Ivanschitz, Hofmann decided to join the German club

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 ...

in January 2006, but after desperately trying to find his form there, he returned to Rapid Wien in the summer. Following his return Hofmann got injured in the first game of the season and therefore missed half the season. His comeback came in late October and he has since then been one of the key players and the captain of Rapid Wien. He is also called "football god" by the fans because of his technical skills, his commitment and his endurance (he did not miss a minute of the 2008 season). Hofmann is also known as a player who rather passes the ball to a better positioned player than having a shoot at goal. On 21 October 2010, he netted the second goal to help his side to a 2–0 away win against

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n club

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

in a

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

match. Hoffman retired during 2018, and a

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

was played in his honour between SK Rapid and a "Steffen Hofmann & Friends" XI.

International career

The

Austrian Football Association The Austrian Football Association (german: Österreichischer Fußball-Bund; ÖFB) is the governing body of football in Austria. It organises the football league, Austrian Bundesliga, the Austrian Cup and the Austria national football team, as well ...

tried in 2005 to let Hofmann, who was born in Germany but is married to an Austrian, to play for the

Austria national football team The Austria national football team (german: Österreichische Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Austria in men's international Association football, football competition and it is controlled by the Austrian Football Association (German: Ös ...

. Hofmann agreed, but the transfer of rights was refused by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

as Hofmann had played several games for Germany in his youth. After the episode, Hofmann did not attain Austrian citizenship and was chosen to represent Germany during the team's Asian tour in late 2005. However, due to illness he could not take part and has not been nominated since despite declaring interest.

Trivia

Hofmann was never sent off in his entire professional career.

Career statistics

Honours

Bayern Munich * German B-youth Championship: 1997 Rapid Wien *

Austrian Football 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. The ...

: 2004–05, 2007–08 *

Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foo ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

Individual *

Austrian Footballer of the Year The Austrian Footballer of the Year award (german: APA-Fußballerwahl) is an annual football award, established in Austria in 1984 and sponsored by the Austria Press Agency (APA). The coaches of all Austrian Football Bundesliga clubs vote to elect t ...

: 2004, 2009 * Krone Footballer of the Year (voted by fans): 2006, 2007 * Austrian Football Bundesliga top scorer: 2009–10 (20 goals)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hofmann, Steffen 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Würzburg German footballers Footballers from Bavaria Association football midfielders Germany B international footballers Germany youth international footballers FC Bayern Munich footballers FC Bayern Munich II players TSV 1860 Munich players SK Rapid Wien players SK Rapid Wien managers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players German football managers German expatriate footballers German expatriate football managers German expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate footballers in Austria Expatriate football managers in Austria