Christian Streich

Early career

Streich grew up in Eimeldingen, a village in Southern Baden. He began to play football at the local club. Later, he transferred to FV Lörrach, which was close to his hometown. Finally, he switched clubs and moved to Freiburg, where his new club would be Freiburger FC. Their first team had just been relegated from Germany’s second division. After one year in FFC’s academy, he was moved to their first team in 1983/1984. The team, at the time, was in Baden-Württemberg's second division. In his first season there, he won the league’s title, but ultimately lost to FC 08 Homburg and VfR Bürstadt in playoff matches for promotion.

Professional career (Bundesliga)

After a further season with FFC, Streich was transferred to the Stuttgarter Kickers in 1985. He left a little over a year later to play for SC Freiburg in the 2. Bundesliga. After a season with SCF in which he made 22 appearances and scored 2 goals, Streich left the club and went to the second-division team FC 08 Homburg, with which he obtained the runner-up position and promotion into the top national league in 1989. In the 1989–90 season, Streich made ten appearances for Homburg. In 1991, Streich transferred back to Freiburger FC and played there until his playing career was cut short by a broken metatarsal in 1995.

Early career

Streich returned to SC Freiburg in 1995 as a youth trainer. With the youth squad, he won the 2006, 2009, and 2011 junior DFB Cup and the Under 19 Fußball-Bundesliga championship in 2008. After Robin Dutt was named manager of the Freiburg's first team in the summer of 2007, Streich served as a co-trainer, attending mainly to the youth squad. Under his direction, many youth players made the leap to the pros including: Dennis Aogo, Jonathan Pitroipa, Daniel Schwaab, Eke Uzoma, Ömer Toprak, and Oliver Baumann.

Freiburg

At the beginning of the 2011–12 season, Streich became assistant coach of Freiburg's first team with the new trainer Marcus Sorg after Robin Dutt left the club to become head coach of Bayer Leverkusen. Following a poor first half of the Bundesliga season which saw Freiburg in the relegation zone, Streich became head coach on 29 December 2011 after Marcus Sorg was sacked. Following the winter break, Freiburg played its first Bundesliga match under Christian Streich against fellow relegation battlers FC Augsburg. Freiburg won 1–0 off of an 88th-minute goal by Matthias Ginter, a player who trained under Streich at the youth levels at SCF and who was brought to the senior squad by Streich himself. The goal came off of a free-kick by the newly signed Danish defender Michael Lumb, another of Streich's own signings during his first transfer period with the club. With the victory, Streich became the first Freiburg manager to win their…

Streich is the son of a butcher and grew up working in his father's shop. He attributes his welcoming personality to his parents and their nature towards customers at the shop. After the abrupt end of his playing career, Streich completed his studies in German, and also studied sport and history at university; he eventually became a qualified teacher. Streich is known for his heavy southwestern German dialect and has been called a firebrand by many because of his energetic personality. He has two children and has described himself as "...just a normal guy, no tattoos, no piercings". Streich also cycles to the stadium on his bicycle for Freiburg's home matches, which is 12 kilometers from his neighbourhood.

Manager

SC Freiburg youth

Junior DFB-Pokal: 2006, 2009, 2011 Under 19 Bundesliga: 2008 SC Freiburg

2. Bundesliga: 2015–16

Individual

Goal! Official Bundesliga Magazine Coach of the Year: 2011–12 kicker Coach of the Year: 2012–13 VDV Bundesliga Coach of the Season: 2021–22 Football Manager of the Year (Germany): 2022