Moritz Volz

Early career

Volz was born in Siegen and started his career in his native Germany at Schalke 04, before being spotted by Arsenal while playing for the German youth team. He was offered a contract and joined the Gunners in the summer of 1999. Volz's debut for the Gunners came in a League Cup defeat to Ipswich Town in 2000. With the club's academy, Volz also won the FA Youth Cup in 2000 and 2001. He made another appearance for Arsenal's first team a year later in a League Cup defeat to Sunderland. In February 2003, he was loaned out to Wimbledon, where he impressed by scoring on his debut against Brighton and going on to make nine further appearances for the Dons. He returned from loan in the summer of the same year before joining Fulham, again on loan, in August 2003. The move was made permanent in January 2004.

Fulham

At Fulham, Volz attained cult-figure status with the fans, in part due to his commitment, passion and community involvement. He was also popular with the club's faithful given that he rode his bicycle to home games. He had several nicknames at Craven Cottage, such as '220 Volz', 'The Electrician', 'Mr Resistor', 'The Hoff' due to his adulation of David Hasselhoff, 'The Lightbulb' and the rather simple 'Volzy'. For the match against Aston Villa on Saturday 21 October 2006, he had 'The Hoff' written on his boots for good luck and promptly scored his first goal in three years. Volz signed a contract extension on 9 December 2006, which kept him at…

Although Volz was not part of the German team that reached the semi-finals of the World Cup on home soil in 2006, he was an ever-present force in Dieter Eilts' successful under-21 side. He helped the team qualify for the European Championships in summer 2006. Volz was included in the senior squad for the 17 November 2004 game in Leipzig against Cameroon but did not appear on the field.

Volz wrote for The Times and worked as a pundit for Sky Sports, Setanta Sports and ITV while playing in the UK. He later worked as a colour commentator for DAZN in Germany. After his retirement in the summer of 2015 Volz worked in 1860 Munich's youth department. He was later a scout for Arsenal.

Arsenal

FA Youth Cup: 1999–2000, 2000–01