Robert Huth

Chelsea

Huth was born in Biesdorf, East Berlin, and played for local side VfB Fortuna Biesdorf and then the youth teams at 1. FC Union Berlin before joining English side Chelsea in 2001. Huth made his debut for Chelsea at the age of 17 in the last game of the 2001–02 season, coming on as a substitute at half-time for Jesper Grønkjær in a 1–3 home defeat against Aston Villa. In August 2003, Reading tried to sign Huth on loan for the 2003–04 season, but their bid was rejected by Chelsea. He made 20 appearances during that season, stating he was happy to stay at Chelsea. In the 2004–05 season, injuries restricted him to 15 appearances for the Blues. When the 2005–06 season started, Huth's chances of becoming a first-choice player at Chelsea in the near future seemed limited with John Terry, William Gallas and Ricardo Carvalho ahead of him in the Chelsea squad. These were the preferred central defenders for Chelsea manager José Mourinho, who had succeeded Ranieri in the summer of 2004. Huth scored twice for Chelsea, with one against MŠK Žilina in a Champions League qualifier and the other against Birmingham City in the FA Cup. At the end of the 2005–06 season, Huth stated that he was unhappy with his lack of first team chances, prompting Middlesbrough, Wigan Athletic and Everton to submit bids for his services. He stated that he would join Middlesbrough after the 2006 FIFA World Cup after agreeing a five-year deal.

Middlesbrough

On 13 July 2006, a proposed…

After leaving Leicester in June 2018, Huth spent time back in Germany studying sporting directorship. Huth made a return to Leicester in October 2022 taking the position of loans manager taking over from Guy Branston.

From a young age, Huth was already a member of the German national team. He also played at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship. Huth was called up on 16 August 2004 in the Germany national team, when he was nominated for the friendly match at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna against Austria. Two days later, he appeared as a substitute in this friendly match in the 86th minute for Andreas Hinkel. Together with a young Per Mertesacker, he was the first-choice central defender for Germany at the 2005 Confederations Cup. On 29 June, he scored his first goal for Germany in a 4–3 extra-time win against Mexico during the third-place play-off. His second goal for Germany came in a 4–1 defeat to Italy in a friendly game played in Florence in March 2006. During the World Cup on home soil, Huth lost his place to Christoph Metzelder as Mertesacker's first-choice partner after being blamed for some defensive errors in several pre-tournament games and only started one game, the last group stage match against Ecuador. He was recalled to the Germany national team, last done for the 2006 World Cup, for a friendly against Switzerland on 20 March 2008 owing to his impressive recent club form. He was later ruled out after suffering from a foot injury. He totalled only 19 games and two goals for Germany, ending his international career very early. Huth is the only ever Germany International that never played a game in the German Bundesliga.

Growing up in Berlin, Huth decided to support Werder Bremen, as local Hertha BSC were rarely on TV. He was a ball boy at the 1997 DFB-Pokal Final at his city's Olympic Stadium. In January 2015, the FA began an investigation into Huth after he took part in a game on Twitter in which users guessed the gender of people in sexually explicit photos. He deleted his interactions with the game and apologised. Later that month, he was fined £15,000 and banned for two matches by the FA for the interactions, which were deemed "an aggravated breach."