Sascha Riether

SC Freiburg

Born in Lahr, West Germany, Riether came from a football family in which his father and older brother and started playing football when he was four years old. Riether then started his football career at B-youth of SC Freiburg before he joined the side in July 1998. Riether previously was at the youth teams of FV Kuhbach (now SC Kuhbach-Reichenbach) and Offenburger FV. After progressing through the ranks at SC Freiburg for the next four years including some matches for the reserve team in 2001/02 at the 4th level, Riether's reward was earned when he signed his first professional contract with the club. Riether started his professional club career in the 2. Bundesliga ahead of the 2002–03 season. He made his SC Freiburg debut in the opening game of the season, a 1–0 win over Alemannia Aachen. Since making his debut for SC Freiburg, he quickly established himself in the first-team for the club, replacing Tobias Willi in the right-back position. Over the season, Riether was praised for his good performance in a number of matches. However, during a 4–0 win against Rot Weiss Ahlen on 9 February 2003, he suffered a "suffered a thick foot with a bruise" despite playing the whole game. After the match, it was announced that Riether was sidelined for two months. But he made his return on 25 April 2003, coming on as a second–half substitute, in a 4–0 loss against SpVgg Greuther Fürth. His return later contributed Freiburg become champions and secure promotion back…

Riether said on an interview on three separate occasions that he would be interested in coaching once his playing career comes to an end. Following his retirement from professional football, Riether was appointed as Schalke 04's first coordinator for the licensed players department. He spoke about his role and was assigned to analyse the players' performances. In November 2020, the club deny reports on their website that Riether was appointed as their new sports director. Three months later, however, Schalke 04 announced that he was relieved of duties following the club's poor results in the league.

Youth career

Riether previously represented Germany youth teams early in his career. Later in 2002, Riether was called up by Germany U-20 and made his debut for the side on 23 October 2002. He went on to make two appearances for the U20 side. In August 2003, Riether was called up by Germany U-21 for the first time. On 9 September 2003, he made his debut for the U21 side, in a 1–0 loss against Scotland U21. Riether captained the U21 side on five occasions. In the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Riether made one appearances during the tournament and were eliminated in the Group Stage. Riether went on to make thirteen appearances for the U21 side.

Senior career

Due to his good performance at Wolfsburg, Riether was considered to be called up by the national team. However, in May 2010, he was cut from being short–listed for the FIFA World Cup squad for the side. Three months later, he was finally called up by the senior team. Riether made his debut with the Germany national team on 11 August 2010, in a friendly against Denmark and played 34 minutes coming on as substitute for Andreas Beck, as the match finished in a 2–2 draw. After the match, he said about his debut, quoting: "It was very special for me, the first international match, but unfortunately we did not win, but I'm really happy to get a taste of it." To date, Riether's only other appearance with the national side was on 7 September 2010, playing the full 90 minutes of a 6–1 thumping of Azerbaijan…

Born in Lahr, West Germany, Riether grew up in Kühbach and excelled in wrestling. However, he had no interest in freestyle or Greco-Roman, leading him to change his interests to football. His interest in endurance racing earned him the nickname "Herbie". Growing up, he supported Borussia Dortmund and idolised Matthias Sammer. In his early football career, Riether developed a reputation as "a good schoolboy, who always does his work without corners and edges, never attracts attention and therefore sometimes receives too little attention." He left school "at least 2-Abi" in 2002. In addition to speaking German, Riether speaks Spanish, French, English and some Portuguese. During his time at Wolfsburg, Riether developed a friendship with his then teammates, Gentner and Marcel Schäfer. Riether is married to his wife Susana, a law student. In June 2020, he became a first time father when his wife gave birth to a baby girl, Sarah.