Thomas Hitzlsperger

Early career

After joining the VfB Forstinning youth team in 1988, Hitzlsperger signed to the Bayern Munich Junior Team, but agreed to leave at the end of the 1999–2000 season.

Aston Villa

After a short trial with Celtic in August 2000, Hitzlsperger joined Aston Villa on a free youth transfer from Bayern Munich. He made his Aston Villa debut in a 3–0 home defeat to Liverpool on 13 January 2001 as an 84th-minute substitute for Jlloyd Samuel; it was his only appearance during his first season in England. Whilst at Aston Villa, Hitzlsperger was briefly loaned out to Second Division club Chesterfield during the 2001–02 season, making his debut in a 1–0 home win against Kidderminster Harriers in the Football League Trophy second round. On 21 November, his link was extended for another month. In all he made six appearances for the Spireites, five of which were in the league. He was recalled by Aston Villa during the second month of the loan spell however, as the Birmingham club had several players injured or suspended. On 20 April 2002, away to already relegated Leicester City, he hit the post after five minutes, from which Peter Crouch opened the scoring from the rebound; Hitzlsperger later scored his first senior goal in the 2–2 draw, from a solo run. Hitzlsperger moved to Aston Villa first team following the arrival of new manager Graham Taylor. On 14 December 2002, his last-minute 30-yard strike past Russell Hoult sealed a 2–1 win over rivals West Bromwich…

Hitzlsperger captained the Germany under-19 team, and also appeared for the national under-21 side. He was then called up to the senior side by Jürgen Klinsmann and made his debut in a 2–0 win against Iran in Tehran on 9 October 2004, replacing Bernd Schneider in the 68th minute. He appeared at the 2005 Confederations Cup and also at the 2006 World Cup, where he failed to make it into Klinsmann's starting eleven, playing just 11 minutes in the third-place play-off against Portugal. He scored his first international goals on 6 September 2006 in a European Championship qualifying game against San Marino. Hitzlsperger came on as a second-half substitute to score Germany's 9th and 11th goals in a record 13–0 win. Germany's coach Joachim Löw included Hitzlsperger in his squad for the 2008 Euros, but did not start him in any of the three group games. Hitzlsperger came on as a second-half substitute in the victories over Poland and Austria, but did not feature at all in the surprise defeat to Croatia. In the knockout stages however, he started in all three matches, helping his team to defeat Portugal in the quarter-final and setting up Philipp Lahm for a 90th-minute winner against Turkey in the semi-final. Germany were defeated 1–0 by Spain in the final, in which Hitzlsperger was substituted in the second half. Hitzlsperger remained first-choice in 2010 World Cup qualifying, playing in all but one match and scoring a goal, but he missed out on his nation's World Cup squad in June…

On 12 February 2019, Hitzlsperger became Head of Sport of VfB Stuttgart. He was promoted to CEO and resigned in January 2022 to return to his television career. In January 2025, after the acquisition of Hellas Verona by American private equity firm Presidio Investors, he was announced as a board member of the club.

Hitzlsperger, the youngest child of Ludwig and Anneliese Hitzlsperger, was born in Munich and grew up in Forstinning, alongside his five brothers and one sister. Hitzlsperger has an interest in economics, and while in England studied investment strategies, although he did not complete the course. He regularly visited the Bank of England to discuss finance with the bank's governor, Mervyn King, a lifelong Aston Villa fan. In June 2007, Hitzlsperger ended his eight-year relationship with his longtime girlfriend, Inga, just one month before they were due to get married. Hitzlsperger has blogged for Störungsmelder, an anti-racism site that encourages debate about xenophobia and racism in Germany.

Coming out

On 8 January 2014, a few months after retiring, he became the highest-profile male footballer to come out as gay at the time. (In 2023, Czech Jakub Jankto became the first active male national footballer to come out as gay.) Hitzlsperger said that he had only realised that he was gay in the past few years. He received widespread support from former fellow players of the Germany national team, such as Lukas Podolski, who said of his coming out as "brave" and "an important sign of our time" as well as a reaction from Joachim Löw who said of his decision as "personal" and that he "deserved respect from every side." In January 2022, Hitzlsperger told ARD, that a "collective coming out" of gay footballers could be a solution to their problems of hiding their sexuality.…