Thomas Schneider (born 24 November 1972) is a German professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. He was the assistant manager to

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 ...

for the German national team. Schneider had previously been manager of

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 ...

club

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB S ...

Playing career

Schneider joined

as a 10-year-old, and progressed through the youth teams, making his breakthrough in the 1991–92 season. He made two appearances that year, deputising for Uwe Schneider (no relation) as the club won the

title. He spent the next couple of years back in Stuttgart's reserve team, and it wasn't until August 1994 that he made his third Bundesliga appearance, when he replaced Marc Kienle in a 2–2 draw with 1. FC Köln at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion. Over the next seven years he established himself as a regular member of Stuttgart's first-team, playing alongside experienced defenders such as

Thomas Berthold Thomas Berthold (born 12 November 1964) is a former German footballer and manager, who played as a defender. He currently works as a pundit and analyst for several TV stations. Club career Berthold was born in Hanau, Hesse. His first club wa ...

Zvonimir Soldo Zvonimir Soldo (born 2 November 1967) is a Croatian football manager and a former player. During his playing career, he mostly played as defensive midfielder. Club career Early career After studying law for six semesters at the University of Za ...

and

Frank Verlaat Frank Verlaat (born 5 March 1968) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a defender. He had a 21-year career throughout Europe, playing in the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Germany and finishing his career in Austria. He e ...

, and such were his performances that he was almost called up to the German national team by then coach Berti Vogts. In

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

Stuttgart won 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 ...

, and Schneider played in the final, replacing Matthias Hagner for the last 20 minutes of the victory over

FC Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons i ...

. The following year he was in the starting line-up for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final, but Stuttgart lost 1–0 to

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 ...

. Injury caused Schneider to miss the entire 2001–02 season, and after only four appearances the following year, he left VfB Stuttgart, after 20 years, to join Hannover 96, then managed by

Ralf Rangnick Ralf Rangnick (; born 29 June 1958) is a German professional football coach, executive and former player who is currently the manager of the Austria national team. Rangnick began his coaching career in 1983, succeeding his career as a player, a ...

, who had coached him at Stuttgart. He spent two seasons with Hannover, and only made eight appearances, and was forced to retire early in the summer of 2005, due to illness brought on by a tick bite that had been spotted too late.

Managerial career

Early career

In 2007 Schneider took up the coaching of the under-19 team of

Bayernliga The Bayernliga (English: Bavarian league) is the highest amateur football league and the second highest football league (under the Regionalliga Bayern) in the state of Bavaria (german: Bayern) and the Bavarian football league system. It is one o ...

side FC Dingolfing, and managed the first-team for the 2009–10 season. After attending the

Hennes Weisweiler Hans "Hennes" Weisweiler (5 December 1919 – 5 July 1983) was a German professional football player and coach. As a coach, he won major titles with Bundesliga clubs Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Köln in the 1970s. With 11 titles, 8 with ...

coaching academy in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

, he returned to

in 2011, to coach the club's under-17 side.

VfB Stuttgart

On 26 August 2013, Schneider became the head coach of

's first team, replacing Bruno Labbadia, who was on a 3-game losing streak. Schneider was sacked by Stuttgart on 9 March 2014 and replaced by Huub Stevens. Schneider was sacked after a 2–2 draw against Eintracht Braunschweig, who was in last place at the time. However, manager Fredi Bobic was quoted saying that VfB Stuttgart and Schneider will work together again in the future. Prior to the draw, Stuttgart had lost eight consecutive matches. Schneider was the sixth coaching casualty during the 2013–14 season.

German national team

On 2 September 2014, Germany's manager

appointed Schneider as assistant coach, following former assistant

Hansi Flick Hans-Dieter "Hansi" Flick (born 24 February 1965) is a German professional football coach and former player who is the manager of the Germany national team. From August 2006 to July 2014, he was the assistant coach of Germany under manager Joac ...

's promotion to sporting director.

Coaching record

Honours

Player

VfB Stuttgart *

: 1991–92 *

: 1996–97 * DFB-Supercup: 1992 * UEFA Intertoto Cup:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2002

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schneider, Thomas 1972 births Living people People from Emmendingen (district) Sportspeople from Freiburg (region) German footballers Association football defenders Bundesliga players VfB Stuttgart players VfB Stuttgart II players Hannover 96 players German football managers Bundesliga managers VfB Stuttgart managers Footballers from Baden-Württemberg