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Forgotten football stars: Bastian Schweinsteiger

Boro Tanchev
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Getty Images

Let’s talk about another forgotten football star, the German legendary midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who is currently playing for Chicago Fire in the MLS.

Bastian Schweinsteiger is one of the greatest midfielders we’ve seen in football’s history. He has won almost everything there is in football, before leaving Europe back in 2017, when he signed for MLS side, Chicago Fire.

Let’s take a look into his amazing career, as the 34-year old midfielder is playing his third season in the United States Championship.

Born in Kolbermoor, West Germany back in August 1984, Basti developed his love for football playing in the youth clubs of FV Oberaudorf – an amateur club near his home town.

In 1998 Schweinsteiger joined the Bayern Munich Youth Academy and made his professional debut for the Bayern Munich II side during the 2001-02 campaign.

His first team debut came in a UEFA Champions League game against RC Lens in November 2002, at the age of 18. He played 16 games for the Bavarians in the 2002-03 season, winning his first-of-the-many Bundesliga title.

Schweinsteiger established himself as a regular first-team player in the next campaign, and also made his debut for the German National Team in a friendly against Hungary in June 2004.

It was just the start of a glorious career on both club and international level. His role at both Bayern and Germany developed through the years, but it wasn’t too long when Bastian Schweinsteiger became the leader of his club and his country.

In 2006 he was awarded the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt – the highest sports award in Germany. The midfielder helped his country to win the bronze medal at the FIFA World Cup that year, netting two goals in the third-place playoff against Portugal. He also won a domestic double with Bayern Munich, his third such achievement with the Bavarians.

Schweinsteiger’s numbers at Bayern are really out of this world. He played 500 games for the club 13-year stay at the Allianz Arena, winning eight Bundesliga titles and seven DFB-Pokals.

However, the 2012-13 would probably be his favorite season, as the Bavarians won their first Treble, winning the most important three competitions – the German League, the German Cup and the UEFA Champions League.

It was an incredible achievement and a big relief for Bastian Schweinsteiger, after losing in two Champions League finals in the previous three years, and being the one who missed the decisive penalty against Chelsea in 2012.

At an international level, Schweinsteiger represented Germany in 121 games in his career and seven major tournaments, winning two third places at the World Cup and finishing as runners-up in the 2008 UEFA Euro.

His biggest success with the national team came in 2014, when the Germans won their fourth FIFA World Cup, beating Argentina 1-0 in the final. Schweinsteiger’s heroic performance that night will always be remembered as one of the greatest in the history of the competition.

The midfielder joined Manchester United in 2015 and played only 32 games in a year and a half at Old Trafford. He added the FA Cup in his trophy cabinet, won in 2016 with the Red Devils.

Schweinsteiger joined Chicago Fire in March 2017 and has played 67 MLS games for the club since then. In the meantime, Bastian married the former tennis star Ana Ivanovic and heir first child, Luka, was born on 17 March 2018 in Chicago.