Andreas Thom

Andreas Thom was born in Rüdersdorf in East Germany and began playing football at an early age for TSG Herzfelde. Andreas Thom joined the youth department of BFC Dynamo in 1974 and enrolled in the elite Children and Youth Sports school (KJS) "Werner Seelenbinder" in Alt-Hohenschönhausen in Berlin. He began a sports teacher degree at the German University of Physical Culture (German: Deutsche Hochschule für Körperkultur) (DHfK) in Leipzig in 1987. Andreas Thom was one of the greatest talents in East German football, according to former BFC Dynamo coach Jürgen Bogs. Bogs claims that Thom "had everything". He brought him up to train with the first team of BFC Dynamo every now and then. At 18-years old, Thom made his professional debut for BFC Dynamo in the DDR-Oberliga, as a substitute for Bernd Schulz in the match against FC Carl Zeiss Jena on 22 October 1983. He then made his international debut for BFC Dynamo against FK Partizan Belgrade in the 1983–84 European Cup on 2 November 1983. During his time at BFC Dynamo, he won the DDR-Oberliga in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988, and the FDGB-Pokal in 1988 and 1989. He scored the only goal of the game in the 1989 FDGB-Pokal final. Thom was the top scorer in the 1987–88 DDR-Oberliga. He became the player of the week six times during the league season. Thom was then also voted the East German Footballer of the Year in 1988. On 16 December 1989, Thom became the first East German to sign for a Bundesliga club when he joined West…

Thom played for the East Germany national team between 1984 and 1990, making 51 appearances and scoring 16 goals. He made his debut in a friendly against Algeria on 10 October 1984. He scored the first of his 16 international goals on 6 February 1985 in another friendly, a 3–2 win over Ecuador. Thom played in six of East Germany's qualifiers for the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and scored his first two competitive goals for his country on 28 September 1985 in a 2–1 win over Yugoslavia in Belgrade. East Germany, however, failed to qualify for the World Cup, finishing third in Group 4 behind France and Bulgaria. He was now a regular in the East German international side, and played in all eight of his nations qualifying ties for Euro 1988. He scored five goals over the campaign, including a hat-trick in a 6–0 away win over Iceland in June 1987. East Germany, however, again failed to qualify; finishing second in the group behind the Soviet Union. In 1988, Thom took over from goalkeeper René Müller as captain of the national side for six matches, including their first two qualifying games for World Cup against Iceland and Turkey. He scored in both of these World Cup qualifiers, both goals in East Germany's 2–0 win over Iceland and their solitary goal in a 3–1 defeat against Turkey in Istanbul. Thom scored his last goal for East Germany on 8 October 1989 as his side came from a goal down to defeat the Soviet Union 2–1. That left the East Germans needing only a draw away against Austria…

After the sacking of Huub Stevens as head coach at Hertha BSC in December 2003, Thom briefly took over for three games until Hans Meyer was appointed later that month. Thom became assistant coach at the club and held that position under Meyer's successor, Falko Götz. On 10 April 2007, Thom was sacked along with Götz due to the poor performance of Hertha BSC. On 15 December 2008, it was announced that Thom would become assistant coach at lower league Holstein Kiel in January 2009. Under head coach Falko Götz, he helped Holstein Kiel win promotion from the Regionalliga Nord to the national third division in 2009. On 15 February 2010, Holstein Kiel sacked Thom. In the 2010–11 season, Thom was appointed to coach the U17 team of Hertha BSC. Thom led the Hertha BSC U17 team to the final round of the German U17 Championship three times, winning the German U17 Championship in 2012 and finishing runner-up in 2013. In 2015-16 season, Thom took over the Hertha BSC U19 team. In the summer of 2017, new head coach at Hertha BSC, Pál Dárdai, brought Thom into a coaching role with the first team, specialising in coaching the strikers at the club. Thom then continued his career at Hertha BSC as youth coach. He works as an individual coach for the Hertha BSC U15 team, as of the 2023-24 season.

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