Stefan Maierhofer

Maierhofer was born on 16 August 1982 in Gablitz in Lower Austria. His parents took over the Hochram-Alpe inn in the town, and he began playing for the local club SV Gablitz at the age of eight. He trained as a cook and restaurant specialist at his parents' insistence and worked in the family business from the age of fourteen. The demands of the trade cost him a move to the Rapid Wien youth setup and interrupted his playing altogether for two years. Maierhofer played for FC Tulln before joining First Vienna for the 2002–03 season. He made 18 Regionalliga appearances and scored twice, then dropped to the fourth-tier Lower Austrian Landesliga with SV Langenrohr. Over two seasons at Langenrohr he established himself as the club's leading scorer while continuing to work shifts at the inn. By 2005 his parents were pressing him to choose between football and the family business. Maierhofer wrote to several Austrian Bundesliga clubs by email and received no reply. When he learned that Daniel Sikorski was moving from the SKN St. Pölten academy to Bayern Munich, he asked Sikorski's agent to arrange a trial in Germany.

Bayern Munich

Bayern allowed Maierhofer to train and to play in friendlies. He impressed in a match against the Hertha BSC reserves, after which reserve-team coach Hermann Gerland pushed for a two-year contract rather than the single year usually offered to players over 23. Maierhofer joined Bayern Munich II in July 2005 and scored 21 goals in 42 Regionalliga Süd appearances across two seasons, becoming club captain and top scorer in both campaigns. He travelled with the first team to their pre-season camp in summer 2006 and made his Bundesliga debut on 28 October 2006, replacing Claudio Pizarro in a 2–0 home win over Eintracht Frankfurt after an injury to Lukas Podolski opened up a place in the squad. He later recalled that Oliver Kahn congratulated him on the pitch afterwards. A second substitute appearance followed, and his total playing time in the Bundesliga amounted to eleven minutes.

Koblenz, Greuther Fürth and Rapid Wien

Maierhofer joined TuS Koblenz of the 2. Bundesliga on 1 February 2007 and scored three goals in 14 league matches. In July 2007 he signed a two-year contract with another club in the division, Greuther Fürth, but started only rarely and made ten league appearances before the winter break. Fürth loaned Maierhofer to Rapid Wien on 7 January 2008 for the second half of the 2007–08 season. He made his debut on 16 February 2008 as a substitute in a 2–0 win at Austria Kärnten and scored his first goal on 2 March at Sturm Graz. Seven…

Maierhofer's form on loan at Rapid Wien earned him a first call-up in April 2008, when Josef Hickersberger named him in Austria's provisional squad for UEFA Euro 2008 on home soil, although he did not make the final selection. He made his debut under Karel Brückner on 20 August 2008 in a 2–2 friendly draw with Italy in Nice. His only international goal came after 49 seconds of a World Cup qualifier against the Faroe Islands in Graz on 5 September 2009, when he headed in a cross from Jakob Jantscher in a 3–1 win. He won 19 caps in total, the last of them in 2011.

Maierhofer completed the UEFA Pro Licence after retiring and worked as an individual coach at the Burgenland football academy. He had first set out that ambition in 2022, when he took the dual role at Kremser SC in order to accumulate the required senior coaching experience. On 20 July 2026 Kremser SC appointed Maierhofer as head coach, his first senior post. The appointment came five days before the club's Austrian Cup tie with Austria Lustenau and followed the sudden departure of Philipp Zulechner to second-division ASK Voitsberg without having taken charge of a competitive match. His first match in charge was the cup tie on 25 July 2026, which Krems lost 1–0 to Austria Lustenau in front of 1,500 spectators at the Sepp-Doll-Stadion through a headed goal by Precious Benjamin. NÖN reported that the performance drew praise despite the result. Krems took two points from their first four league matches of the 2026–27 season, drawing with SV Donau Wien and SC/ESV Parndorf and losing to SV Gloggnitz and FC Marchfeld Donauauen.