Alexander Scholz (born 24 October 1992) is a Danish 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 plays as a

centre-back 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 ...

for

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

club

FC Tokyo , commonly known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chōfu, Tokyo. The club plays in the J1 League, the top tier of football in the country. From 2025, FC Tokyo is one of the few J.League clubs to be simply called ''Footb ...

Early life

Scholz' parents are German. He was raised in the

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality (''Municipalities of De ...

area in Denmark.

Club career

Scholz started his career with Hedensted IF, before being scouted by

Vejle Boldklub Vejle Boldklub is a Danish professional football club based in Vejle in Jutland. Formed in 1891, the club is one of the most successful clubs in Danish football history, having won the Danish championship five times and the Danish cup title six ...

. He later moved to

Stjarnan Ungmennafélagið Stjarnan (, ), commonly known as Stjarnan (), is an Icelandic multi-sports club specialising in handball, football, basketball, volleyball and gymnastics located in Garðabær. Basketball Men's basketball As of the 2017–2 ...

in Iceland. In 2012, Belgian team

Lokeren Lokeren () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second ...

started scouting him following a tip from their former player

Arnar Grétarsson Arnar Grétarsson (born 20 February 1972 in Reykjavík) is an Icelandic former professional football player and former manager of Valur. Club career Arnar started his career in Breiðablik, where he played for several years until he joined ...

, who had seen Scholz play in Iceland. Based on these scouting reports, Lokeren signed Scholz in December 2012, giving him a contract until 2015. Just a few days later on 19 January 2013, he made his debut in the Belgian top league in a 2–6 won away match against

OH Leuven Oh, OH, or Oh! is an interjection, often proclaiming surprise (emotion), surprise. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Albums * Oh! (Girls' Generation album), ''Oh!'' (Girls' Generation album), 2010 * Oh! (ScoLoHoFo album), ''Oh!'' (S ...

. He scored the winning goal in a 1–0 win for Lokeren in the final of the 2014 Belgian Cup Final. Scholz signed a five-year contract with

FC Midtjylland Football Club Midtjylland (, "Central Jutland") is a Danish professional football club based in Herning and Ikast. The club is the result of a merger between Ikast FS and Herning Fremad. Midtjylland competes in the Danish Superliga, which they ...

in August 2018. On 1 December 2020, Scholz scored a goal for

in a

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 ...

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

match against

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

; the final score was 1–1. On 31 May 2021, it was announced that Scholz had signed a contract with

club

Urawa Red Diamonds The or simply Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ, ''Urawa Rezzu''), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, are a professional association football, football club in the city of Saitama (city), Saitama, part of t ...

. There, he would join his compatriot Kasper Junker, who had signed with the Japanese club a month prior. He left the club at the end of June 2024. Prior to his departure, both he and

Hiroki Sakai is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a right back and the inaugural captain for A-League club Auckland FC. Club career Kashiwa Reysol Born in Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan, Sakai was introduced to football by his two older brothers and j ...

were given a farewell sendoff following the club’s matches against

Júbilo Iwata is a Japanese professional association football, football team based in Iwata, Shizuoka, Iwata, located in Shizuoka Prefecture. The club competes in J2 League following relegation from J1 League in 2024 J1 League, 2024. Etymology The team's ...

on 30 June 2024.

International career

In November 2020, he was called up to

Kasper Hjulmand Kasper Hjulmand (born 9 April 1972) is a Danish Association football, football manager and a former player. He was most recently the head coach for the Denmark national football team, Denmark national team. As a manager, he led FC Nordsjælland ...

's senior squad for the friendly against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

due to several cancellations from, among others, the Danish national team players playing in England, due to the

COVID-19 restrictions During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions), were implemented in numero ...

, as well as a case of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

in the squad, which had put several national team players in quarantine.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Lokeren *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

: 2013–14 Standard Liège * Belgian Cup: 2015–16 Club Brugge *

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

: 2017–18 *

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( ; ; ), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian Pro League champions (also received the Super Cup host) and the Belgian Cup winners. If both teams are the same, ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Midtjylland *

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

: 2019–20 *

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

: 2018–19 Urawa Red Diamonds *

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or Japan FA Cup, and rebranded as The JFA Emperor's Cup from 2024 onwards, is a Japanese annual football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football tournament in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formatio ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Japanese Super Cup The , the for sponsorship reasons, is an annual one-match association football competition in Japan organised by J.League and the Japan Football Association. This competition serves as the season opener and is played between the reigning J1 Leag ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

Individual *

Player of the Year:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

J.League Best XI The J.League Best XI is an acknowledgement of the best eleven players in J.League. J1 League (1993–present) Multiple appearances Appearances by club Appearances by country * Only on two occasions there has been a full-Japanese Best X ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scholz, Alexander 1992 births Living people Danish men's footballers Danish people of German descent Hedensted IF players Vejle Boldklub players Stjarnan players K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players Standard Liège players Club Brugge KV players FC Midtjylland players Urawa Red Diamonds players Al-Wakrah SC players Denmark men's youth international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Belgian Pro League players Danish Superliga players Qatar Stars League players Danish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Danish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Iceland Danish expatriate sportspeople in Iceland Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Danish expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Danish expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Men's association football defenders Footballers from Copenhagen AFC Champions League Elite–winning players 21st-century Danish sportsmen