Michael Schulz (born 3 September 1961) is a German former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He played 243 matches in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

for

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

and

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

and scored eight goals.

Club career

Schulz was born in

Witten Witten () is a city with almost 100,000 inhabitants in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. Geography Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area. Bordering municipalities * Bochum ...

. He had the reputation of being one of the hardest defenders in the Bundesliga. He collected 48 yellow and 2 red cards. He was a favourite at

and

, his fans regularly chanting "Schuuuuuuuuuulz" whenever he had the ball. Fellow Bremen player

Christian Schulz Christian Schulz (born 1 April 1983) is a German former professional Association football, footballer and current manager who played as a centre back or left-back. He is currently the interim manager of Hannover 96. Club career Schulz joined ...

and fellow Dortmund player

Nico Schulz Nico Schulz (; born 1 April 1993) is a German professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Ankaragücü. Club career Schulz played for BSC Rehberge Berlin until 2000 before joining Hertha BSC at the age of seven. He performed convincin ...

, who bear no relationship to him, were regularly celebrated like this because of him. In Panini's World Championship collector's cards edition 1994 he is described as "an anchor as header, strong in duels, feared for his wide throw-ins. The Charles Bronson type of guy overdoes toughness." Michael Schulz made nearly 250 (West) German top-flight appearances.

International career

He played seven times for the Germany national team from 1992 to 1993. He also competed for West Germany at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

Post-playing career

Schulz works as a player agent at the Hamburg-based

sport management Sport management is the field of business dealing with sports and recreation. Sports management involves any combination of skills that correspond with planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, or evaluating of any organiz ...

agency Extratime. He's additionally in the field for several German TV channels and since August 2009 also as a field reporter for

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

's football channel Liga total.

"Curse" of Michael Schulz

Although Schulz was regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation, top titles eluded him. The special sting in his case was the fact that each team he played for was highly successful ''after'' he was transferred away, leading to speculation he was cursed. *1. FC Kaiserslautern (1987–1989): in this period, FCK was a scrub team which constantly flirted with relegation. After Schulz was shipped away, FCK won the German Cup in 1990 and the German Championship in 1991. *Borussia Dortmund (1989–1994): BVB was a midfield team when Schulz was there. But then, Schulz feuded with

Matthias Sammer Matthias Sammer (; born 5 September 1967) is a German Association football, football official and former player and coach. He played as a defensive midfielder and later in his career as a Sweeper (association football), sweeper. With Borussia D ...

and was sent away, just before BVB won two German Championships in 1995 and 1996 and the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

in 1997. *Werder Bremen (1994–1997): Schulz joined Bremen just after Werder had won two German Championships and the German Cup. During his period, Werder suffered a drought and won nothing, apart from the

1994 DFB-Supercup The 1994 DFB-Supercup, known as the Panasonic DFB-Supercup for sponsorship purposes, was the eighth DFB-Supercup, an annual football match contested by the winners of the previous season's Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal competitions. The match was pl ...

. However, in 1999, Werder won the German Cup again after Schulz had left. In a 1997 issue of the German football magazine ''

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (magazine), sports magazine in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the wor ...

'', published when Schulz announced his retirement, he was asked in the column ''Mal ehrlich'' (Now, seriously), whether Bremen, now that Schulz was stopping, would finally win something. He answered, "This is a sure-fire tip! I'd bet on it anytime", acknowledging the existence of his jinx.

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

DFL-Supercup The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off association football, football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (E ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

finalist: 1992–93 Werder Bremen *

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

West Germany Olympic *

Olympic bronze medal Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

Germany *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

runner-up:

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

* 1993 U.S. Cup

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schulz, Michael 1961 births Living people Sportspeople from Witten Footballers from Arnsberg (region) German men's footballers Men's association football defenders Germany men's international footballers VfB Oldenburg players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Borussia Dortmund players SV Werder Bremen players Bundesliga players Olympic footballers for West Germany West German men's footballers Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics UEFA Euro 1992 players Olympic bronze medalists for West Germany Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics