Arne Friedrich German Footballer From Bad Oeynhausen

Early life

Arne Friedrich was born on 29 May 1979 in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany. He is listed at 185 centimetres tall. His first club on record is SC Verl, where he played in the Regionalliga around 1999 and 2000.

Career

Friedrich was a defender who was used mainly at full-back, though he also played in the centre of defence and occasionally in midfield. His route into professional football began when Hermann Gerland, then head coach of Arminia Bielefeld, watched him at SC Verl and brought him to Bielefeld. His first professional contract covered the 2000-01 season, and he became a regular starter at once. He spent two years there.

In 2002 he moved to Hertha BSC in Berlin. That year the club won the DFB-Ligapokal, beating Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 on the way. From the 2004-05 season, under the coach Falko Götz, he was the team captain, and he kept the armband for the rest of his time in Berlin. He played 231 Bundesliga matches for Hertha and signed two contract extensions. The club also won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2006 during his time there. After Hertha were relegated in 2010, he moved to VfL Wolfsburg for a reported fee of two million euros on a three-year deal. His contract there was ended in September 2011.

In March 2012 he joined Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer, making his debut on 16 April 2012 against Houston Dynamo in a 1-1 draw. His first MLS goal came on 12 August 2012 against Philadelphia Union, and the club named him its Defender of the Year for that season. He extended his contract to the end of 2013 and, in January 2013, became a permanent resident of the United States, which meant he no longer took up an international player slot. He announced his retirement from professional football on 23 June 2013.

National team

Friedrich played five times for the Germany under-21 side and once for the B team known as Team 2006. His debut for the senior team came on 21 August 2002 against Bulgaria in Sofia, a 2-2 draw. He played in all three of Germany's group matches at Euro 2004, and on 21 December 2004 he captained the side in a 5-1 friendly win over Thailand in Bangkok. He wore the armband three more times after that.

Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup, and Friedrich started every game apart from the third-place match, which he missed through injury. At Euro 2008 he began as a substitute but entered the line-up after Marcell Jansen was injured, and he started the last group game and all three knockout games, including the quarter-final against Portugal, in which he marked Cristiano Ronaldo. In March 2009 national coach Joachim Löw said he planned to use him in central defence. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa he scored his only international goal, in his 77th appearance, in the 4-0 quarter-final win over Argentina on 3 July 2010. He finished with 82 caps. His team-mates on record included Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker.

Recognition

With Germany he finished as runner-up at the 2008 European Championship and took third place at the 2005 Confederations Cup and at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. For the 2006 and 2010 tournaments he received the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf). He also appears in the documentary film Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen (2006), about the national team's World Cup.

Public roles

After his playing career, Friedrich became assistant coach of the German under-18 national team in August 2014 and left the post at the end of 2015. On 27 November 2019 Hertha BSC hired him as performance manager, the same day Jürgen Klinsmann became coach. He became sporting director in summer 2020, and in December of that year he was named interim managing director after Michael Preetz left. He returned to the sporting director role in July 2021 and was appointed to the club's executive board.