Timo Hildebrand

VfB Stuttgart

After starting his career at the little-known FV Hofheim/Ried, Hildebrand joined the Stuttgart youth team in 1994. In the 1999–2000 season, Hildebrand played in six Bundesliga matches. From the summer of 2000, he was the club's number one goalkeeper and contributed largely to Stuttgart's successes, particularly as part of what became known as "Stuttgart's young wild ones" team under coach Felix Magath. He began the 2000–01 season by playing in eight matches in the Intertoto Cup. He went on making 32 Bundesliga appearances, five German Cup appearances, and eight UEFA Cup. The following season, he made 34 appearances. VfB Stuttgart managed to be Bundesliga runners-up in 2003. He had made 20 Bundesliga appearances, one German Cup appearance, four UEFA Cup appearances, and eight Intertoto Cup matches. He survived the Champions League group stage the following season, before bowing out to Chelsea FC in the second round. He made 43 appearances during the 2003–04 season. Hildebrand also played a significant role in Stuttgart's victorious 2006–07 Bundesliga campaign, figuring as a backbone for the next generation of "wild ones" like Serdar Tasci or Mario Gómez and helping Stuttgart provide the third-best defence of the season. The 2006–07 campaign remains his greatest domestic success to this day, and his last season with Stuttgart as in December 2006 he did not accept the club's offer to extend his contract. He made 39 appearances during the 2006–07…

After collecting 18 Under-21-caps, Hildebrand made his full international debut for Germany on 28 April 2004 in a friendly against Romania in Bucharest as he came on as a half-time substitute for Oliver Kahn with Germany 0–4 down, and eventually lost 1–5. Hildebrand was selected for three consecutive tournaments for Germany, Euro 2004, 2005 Confederations Cup and 2006 World Cup, as Germany's third-choice goalkeeper behind Jens Lehmann and Oliver Kahn. He played his first competitive international at the 2005 Confederations Cup against Argentina (final score 2–2). He was the only member of the 2006 World Cup squad who did not play at the tournament, as Germany came third on home soil. After Kahn's retirement from international football in 2006, Hildebrand stepped up to become Germany's number two and was Jens Lehmann's natural replacement during the Euro 2008 qualification. Somewhat surprisingly, Joachim Löw dropped Hildebrand from the final squad for the tournament and picked Robert Enke and René Adler ahead of him. Although Löw stated that Hildebrand was an important player and may return to the set-up in near future, he never appeared for Germany since his omission from their squad for Euro 2008.

Club

International

VfB Stuttgart

UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2000, 2002 Bundesliga: 2006–07 DFB-Pokal runner-up: 2006–07 Valencia

Copa del Rey: 2007–08 Germany

FIFA World Cup third place: 2006 FIFA Confederations Cup third place: 2005 Individual

ESM Team of the Year: 2003–04