Jonas Armin Hector (; born 27 May 1990) 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 ...

. Hector played the entirety of his senior professional career for German club 1. FC Köln, making 347 appearances for the side across an eleven-year period. He also represented the Germany national team from 2014 to 2019.

Club career

1. FC Köln

After beginning his youth career and its first steps in senior football with SV Auersmacher in his home state of

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

, Hector transferred to 1. FC Köln in 2010. He was promoted to the first team by coach Holger Stanislawski for the 2012–13 season and was given a debut in the first round of the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

against

SpVgg Unterhaching Spielvereinigung Unterhaching () is a German sports club in Unterhaching, a semi-rural municipality on the southern outskirts of the Bavarian capital Munich. The club is widely known for playing in the first-division association football league ...

on 18 August 2012. On 27 August, he made his league debut in a

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

match against

FC Erzgebirge Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. Liga in 2008–09, ...

. He established himself as a starting player for Köln during the season, making 24 appearances in the league. In 2013–14, Hector started 33 of Köln's 34 matches as the FC won the second division championship, gaining promotion to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

. On 4 November 2013, he scored his first professional goal in a 4–0 defeat of

1. FC Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as 1. FC Union Berlin () or Union Berlin, is a professional German football club in Köpenick, Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweid ...

. The following season, he again played in all but one of Köln's league matches, making his Bundesliga debut against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

on the first matchday. On 4 October 2014, he scored his first Bundesliga goal in a 3–2 loss at

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

. He was named Köln's Player of the Season for 2014–15 by the club's official website with 54.41% of the vote. On 31 December 2015, Hector was also named Köln's "Winner of the Year" by Cologne newspaper Express, who named the defender the club's "Mr. Reliable". On 7 February 2016, Hector captained Köln for the first time in a 1–1 draw with Hamburger SV. At the end of the 2015–16 season, Hector was reported to have the most crosses blocked in

, recording a total of 20 blocks. After a successful season and an impressive

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

campaign, Hector received interest from the likes of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

and

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, which led to negotiations on a new contract. On 14 August 2016, Hector signed a new contract until 2021. On 23 April 2018, Hector and the Köln announced he had signed a new contract, even though the club was effectively relegated into the 2. Bundesliga at this point. After Köln's 3–2 loss to SC Freiburg the following matchday, it was confirmed that the team had been relegated. On 12 January, he was awarded the 2018 Bundesliga Goal of the Year award for his chipped goal against Wolfsburg in the season before. On 27 May 2023, he played his last professional match for Köln against

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

International career

On 7 November 2014, Hector was called up to the

Germany national football team The Germany national football team (german: link=no, Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Germany in men's international football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (''Deuts ...

for the first time ahead of a

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

match against

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

and a friendly against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Manager

Joachim Löw Joachim Löw (born 3 February 1960) is a German football coach and former player. He was the manager of the Germany national team from 2006 until 2021. During his tenure as manager, he led Germany to victory at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil ...

said "We want to get to know Jonas Hector better; he's in good form for Cologne." He made his debut in the 4–0 win over Gibraltar in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

on 14 November, replacing

Erik Durm Erik Durm (born 12 May 1992) is a German professional footballer who plays as a full-back for 2. Bundesliga club 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He made his senior debut for the Germany national team in 2014, and later that year was part of their squad ...

for the last 18 minutes. On 4 September 2015, he started a Euro 2016 qualifier against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

at left back and assisted goals for

Thomas Müller Thomas Müller (; born 13 September 1989) is a German professional footballer who plays for club Bayern Munich and the Germany national team. A versatile player, Müller has been deployed in a variety of attacking roles – as an attacking mi ...

and

Mario Götze Mario Götze (born 3 June 1992) is a German professional footballer who plays for Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt and the Germany national team. Although his favoured position is that of a playmaker, Götze has also played as a false ni ...

thus further staking his claim to the left back position for Germany. On 29 March 2016, Hector scored his first goal for Germany in a 4–1 win over

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in Munich. On 31 May 2016, Hector was named in Germany's final 23-man squad for

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

. On 2 July 2016, Hector scored the winning kick in the quarter-final penalty shootout against Italy to take the German team into the Euro 2016 semi-final stage. In 2017, Hector was named in Germany's squad for the

Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships (AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...

in Russia. He played in all-but-one of Germany's matches at the tournament as the nation went on to lift the title. On 15 May 2018, Hector was called up to Germany's preliminary squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He was selected in Germany's final 23-man squad on 4 June 2018. On 14 October 2020, it was reported that Hector had retired from international football and would no longer represent Germany's national team. Of his 43 internationals for Germany his team won 28.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first.''

Honours

1. FC Köln *

: 2013–14, 2018–19 Germany * FIFA Confederations Cup:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hector, Jonas Living people 1990 births Footballers from Saarbrücken German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers Men's association football defenders SV Auersmacher players 1. FC Köln players 1. FC Köln II players Oberliga (football) players Regionalliga players 2. Bundesliga players Bundesliga players UEFA Euro 2016 players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2018 FIFA World Cup players FIFA Confederations Cup-winning players