Fourth league instead of Bundesliga: Holger Badstuber’s tragic career

Holger Badstuber was once a great promise of German football. But everything turns out differently: Injuries slow down the rise of the central defender, sometimes he stands in his own way. Now a low point has been reached.

Once again, Holger Badstuber has to accept that his career is not going the way he wants it to. Or how it could have been, how it should have been. But this time it is not the body that forces him to take a different path, this time it is his employer. VfB Stuttgart no longer has any use for the 31-year-old in its professional team. From now on the central defender trains and plays in the second team, in the fourth division. This demotion is the temporary low point of a career that started so hopefully at Bayern.

In 2009 the Dutch coach Louis van Gaal brought Badstuber to the Bundesliga team of FC Bayern, together with another young man named Thomas Müller. Both belong to van Gaals, who had previously helped the future world stars Andres Iniesta and Xavi to their professional debuts at FC Barcelona.

And both have a strong debut season in the national team, both are part of the DFB squad at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Müller is the top scorer, Badstuber mostly watches. Ten years later, Müller is world champion, German record player in the Champions League, is currently on the verge of his second triumph in the premier class – and all of football Germany is demanding his return to the national team.

“Don’t act as a stinky boot”

For Badstuber, on the other hand, there is no longer any room at Bundesliga promoted VfB Stuttgart. In the defensive area, the Swabians “want to rely more on other players”, said sporting director Sven Mislintat, “for this development process we also consider a corresponding squad size to be necessary and sensible”. Even if it is difficult for him, he accepts the decision, said Badstuber. So he will not appear as a stinky boot, even if he is actually convinced “that I can help the team in the Bundesliga”.

But they have now lost this belief in Stuttgart, just like those in charge at FC Bayern and later at FC Schalke 04. In the latter, of course, there are quite different versions of the history of the separation.

In January 2017, Holger Badstuber leaves FC Bayern Munich on loan to FC Schalke 04. The farewell should be a temporary one and mark the temporary end of a long period of suffering. That’s the plan. At least Badstuber’s. On December 1, 2012, the defender suffered the first of two cruciate ligament tears in his right knee during his time in Bavaria and had to undergo operations on the joint four times.

Two serious injuries in his left thigh and a broken ankle quickly turned the central defender into a tragic figure: repeatedly buffeted by fate, repeatedly standing up bravely. It was not until the end of October 2016 that he made his emotional comeback in competitive matches at the Munich team after 259 days in the DFB Cup against FC Augsburg. It was the last of many, he would never be on the pitch again for Bayern. Of course, nobody knew that at the time.

A lot of trouble at FC Schalke

The idea with the match practice at Schalke goes terribly wrong: Badstuber works in vain on the regular players Benedikt Höwedes and Matija Nastasic, only comes to ten missions. He feels linked by those responsible at FC Schalke 04. “Going to Schalke was definitely a mistake in retrospect. I didn’t feel comfortable there, the break was too big,” he later told the Rasenfunk podcast. “I was led to believe something.”

Coach Markus Weinzierl told him, “He needs my passport security and quality. Otherwise I wouldn’t be away from Bayern.” Badstuber is silent about the fact that they hardly had any use for him in Munich, given the central defenders Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels and Javi Martinez.

The then Schalke manager Christian Heidel, who announced at a press conference that the club had decided against signing his loan player, accuses Badstuber of dishonesty. “They were just lies that they didn’t want to extend with me. For me there was no question that I wanted to stay at Schalke.” The way back to FC Bayern is blocked, despite a contract valid until 2018, the record champions let their earned but no longer needed player move free of charge.

He will return to VfB Stuttgart, from whose youth he comes, in 2017 in order to push his career a little towards international class with a strong season. He wants to use the club as a stepping stone, and a completely unusual one-year contract documents the idea of ​​the arrangement. “The Champions League is what I’m striving for. It was always the best thing to measure yourself against the best. It’s still mine Goal, “he says in spring 2018, he always keeps VfB at a distance emotionally. Badstuber avoids the “we” form when talking about the club and its demands.

“Muschi” anger and Weinzierl frustration

He lets the short contract expire, but the dream of the Champions League bursts: There is no suitable club for the highly talented, highly ambitious defender. And so he signs again out of necessity for three years with VfB Stuttgart, which is not his VfB Stuttgart. And the springboard quickly becomes a career grave. In terms of sport he is not convincing, then his body goes on strike again – and then, in Markus Weinzierl, a coach takes over the team with whom Badstuber has been at Schalke since their time together.

When Weinzierl was introduced as the Swabian coach, it was “completely incomprehensible. I didn’t have a good time with him at Schalke,” reports Badstuber Rasenfunk. “When Weinzierl came, I said to Mario Gomez: ‘It’s going to be a tough season.'” Six months later, Weinzierl left again, VfB Stuttgart was relegated.

Badstuber never found happiness in Stuttgart. On the contrary, there is even a lot of trouble, especially in the past season. In November, in the second division game against Holstein Kiel (0: 1), the multiple German champions first saw yellow-red in the 53rd minute for repeated foul play, then when leaving the pitch he scolded the referees: “You are Pussies become pussies. ” Badstuber later apologizes on social media.

Kassel instead of the Champions League

But instead of showing remorse or at least taking cover, Badstuber goes for it: In his opinion, external microphones should not be placed so close to the playing fields. “I want to be able to live out my emotions on the pitch. Maybe you should think about placing the microphones a little further back,” said the defender of “Sport Bild” at the time. Badstuber does not think that a disparaging word like “pussy” has just as little place on the pitch as “fagot”, the eternal layman of “men’s football” and other things.

The former national player missed the last games of the promotion season because he was expressing a bit too loud criticism internally. “To be loud when it is necessary is part of my way of doing things. I feel responsible and I live football”, he justified himself after the promotion in the “Sport Bild”. The type of Holger Badstuber is no longer in demand in Stuttgart, even if his class is still undisputed.

The people in charge at VfB would be happy to get the top earner off the payroll quickly. However, he had only recently emphasized that his well-funded contract, which ran until the end of June 2021, would be left untouched.

And so Holger Badstuber – the six-time German champion, the Champions League winner, the van Gaal favorite, the 31-time national player – says goodbye to the professionals at VfB Stuttgart not in the Champions League, but in the direction of Kassel. At the local KSV Hessen, VfB’s second representation will start the regional league season in early September.

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