David Alaba

Early career

Born in Vienna, Alaba began his career with SV Aspern, his local club in Aspern, in the Vienna district Donaustadt, before joining the youth setup of Austria Wien at age ten. He rose through the ranks quickly; in April 2008, he was named on the first-team substitutes' bench for an Austrian Bundesliga match. He also played five times for Austria Wien's reserve team, before leaving in summer 2008 to join German side Bayern Munich of the Bundesliga.

Bayern Munich

Youth, reserves and Hoffenheim loan

He started out in Bayern's youth system, playing for the under 17 and under 19 teams, before being promoted to the reserve team for the 2009–10 season. He made his debut in a 3. Liga match against Dynamo Dresden in August 2009 and scored his first professional goal for FC Bayern Munich II on 29 August 2009. He was named in Bayern Munich's squad for the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League, where he was assigned the shirt number 27. In January 2010, it was announced that Alaba would train with the first team for the rest of the 2009–10 season, along with reserve teammates Diego Contento and Mehmet Ekici. The trio were named on the first-team substitutes' bench for the first time on 10 February 2010, for a DFB-Pokal game against SpVgg Greuther Fürth, and Alaba came on in the 59th minute, replacing Christian Lell. After one minute on the pitch, and with his second touch of the game, he set up Franck Ribéry to give Bayern a 3–2 lead, in a match they…

Alaba played for Austria at under-17, under-19 and under-21 level. In October 2009, he was called up to the senior Austria national team for a match against France. He made his debut in this game, making him the youngest player in the history of the Austria national team. He scored his first goal for Austria on 16 October 2012 in a World Cup Qualifying game at home to Kazakhstan where Austria were 4–0 winners. At the age of just 19, Alaba won the prestigious vote for Austrian Footballer of the Year in 2011. In the poll organised by APA (Austrian press agency) among the coaches of the ten Austrian Bundesliga clubs, Alaba finished top on 21 points, just ahead of Austria Wien's Dutch star Nacer Barazite (20 points) and VfB Stuttgart's Martin Harnik. In December 2012, he received the award for the second consecutive year. On 10 September 2013, Alaba scored the only goal of the game against Ireland in the 84-minute to give Austria a 1–0. He scored the final goal in Austria's 3–0 win in the final qualification match against Faroe Islands. Alaba ended the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign as Austria's top scorer with six goals. He scored a ninth-minute Panenka-style penalty kick on 8 September 2015 to open a 4–1 away win over Sweden at the Friends Arena in Solna. The result qualified Austria for UEFA Euro 2016, their first successful qualification campaign for the continental championship. Alaba played in all three group matches as Austria finished last in their group with…

A versatile defender, Alaba regularly plays as a left-back, and he has been deployed as a centre-back, central midfielder, and left midfielder. Although not known to have a fast pace, and his positioning has sometimes been questionable, Alaba possesses a powerful left foot; in which besides his defensive prowess, he is noted for his offensive capabilities and ability to read the game, where he has gained a reputation carrying the ball upfront in attacking plays and supplies his team with passes. Alaba has been noted for his talents being visible since a young age, and he has been singled out for his mentality, consistency, and leadership.

Alaba was born in Vienna to George and Gina Alaba and has one sister, a professional recording artist, named Rose May Alaba. His Yoruba Nigerian father is a prince from Ogere who is also a rapper and works as a DJ. His Visayan mother emigrated from the Philippines to work as a nurse. He is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Alaba understands and speaks the Bosnian language, as most of his childhood friends in Vienna were Bosnian.