Markus Steinhöfer (born 7 March 1986) 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

right-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 ...

Club career

Youth football

Steinhöfer began his early football with local amateur club DSC Weißenburg. Via TSV Roth he then joined the youth division of 1. FC Nürnberg. In 2002 he joined the B-Juniors (later U-17) in the youth department of

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

. A year later he advanced to their A-Junioren (later U-19) and was part of the team that won the final in the A-Junioren-Bundesliga 2003–04. At the same time, as of February 2004, he made his first appearances for the

FC Bayern München Amateure FC Bayern Munich II (''FC Bayern Munich Amateure'' until 2005) are the reserve team of German association football club Bayern Munich, currently playing in the Regionalliga Bayern. In 2010–11, they played in the 3. Liga, having qualified for ...

in the third-tier Regionalliga Süd, winning the championship title in that division at the end of the season. The following season he was regular starter in the team. He played with the team for two seasons and was then loaned to Red Bull Salzburg.

Red Bull Salzburg

In summer 2006 he joined

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

team Red Bull Salzburg under head coach

Giovanni Trapattoni Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), popularly nicknamed "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian former Association football, football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Football in Italy, Italian football ...

.First playing with their reserve team, he gradually became regular player in their first team and won the Austrian Bundesliga 2006–07. In the following season he then made his first European appearances, but failed with Salzburg both in the Champions League qualifying round and in the UEFA Cup first round. In the domestic league, he and his team finished second behind the new champions

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

Eintracht Frankfurt

In July 2008, Steinhöfer moved to

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

for a fee of €900,000. Under head coach

Friedhelm Funkel Friedhelm Funkel (born 10 December 1953) is a German football manager and former player. He was most recently the head coach Bundesliga club of 1. FC Köln. Coaching career MSV Duisburg Funkel was manager of MSV Duisburg between 13 May 1996 and ...

Steinhöfer was a regular starter, he played in 32 of the 34 league matches. However, in his second season following the change of manager to

Michael Skibbe Michael Heinz Skibbe (born 4 August 1965) is a German former football player and current manager of J1 League club Sanfrecce Hiroshima. He is currently the 2024 ' J.League Manager of the Year'. Club career In his youth, Skibbe played for SG Wa ...

, Steinhöfer struggled to find a regular spot in the team and announced that it was his intention to transfer.

Kaiserslautern (loan)

On 29 December 2009, Eintracht Frankfurt loaned him to

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 ...

, one division lower, until the end of the season. In the 2. Bundesliga Steinhöfer played 15 games and scored two goals for FCK. At the end of the 2009–10 2. Bundesliga season Kaiserslautern were division champions and achieved promotion.

Return to Frankfurt

In the summer of 2010 Steinhöfer returned to Frankfurt. Again, he was barely taken into consideration by coach Skibbe and only substituted in on in four league games and so was unable to make an impact. In January 2011 Steinhöfer left Frankfurt to join

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

Basel

On 25 January 2011

announced the change in their defensive right-back position. Samuel Inkoom had transferred out to Dnjepr Dnjepropetrovsk and Steinhöfer had signed in from Eintracht Frankfurt to them on a two-and-a-half-year contract. He joined Basel's first team for their 2011–12 season under head coach

Thorsten Fink Thorsten Fink (born 29 October 1967) is a German football coach and a former footballer, who is the head coach of Belgian Pro League club KRC Genk. Playing career Fink began his career with Borussia Dortmund's reserve squad before moving to S ...

. After playing in one test game, Steinhöfer played his domestic league debut for his new club in the away game in the

Stadion Lachen Stadion Lachen is a multi-use stadium in Thun, Switzerland. It is currently used mostly for American Football matches of the Thun Tigers. The stadium served as the home ground of FC Thun from 1954 to 2011 until the Swiss Football League The Swis ...

on 6 February 2011 as Basel won 3–2 against

FC Thun Fussballclub Thun 1898 is a Swiss association football, football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Super League from 2025–26, the top tier of the Swiss football league system, following promotion from the ...

. He played in all 18

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

games and at the end of the 2010–11 season Steinhöfer won the Championship title with Basel. To the beginning of their 2011–12 season Steinhöfer was member of the Basel team that won the 2011 Uhrencup, beating both

Hertha Berlin Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football, following relegation from t ...

3–0 and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

2–1 to lead the table on goal difference above Young Boys. Basel entered the

2011–12 UEFA Champions League The 2011–12 UEFA Champions League was the 57th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 20th season in its current Champions League format. As part of a trial that started in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa Lea ...

in the group stage. On 7 December 2011, during the Champions League group C match at home in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

against

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

, trying to make a clearance, Steinhöfer volleyed the ball against his own crossbar. The ball bounced back into play and the defence were able to clear it away. Basel won the match 2–1, sending United out of the Champions league. Steinhöfer's fans created a song to celebrate this feat. Basel advanced to the knockout phase. But in the round of 16, despite a 1–0 home win against

, it was the German team who advanced to the next round. Steinhöfer scored his first Super League goal in the 3–0 away win against Sion on 22 April 2012. At the end of the 2011–12 season he won the

Double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

with his new club. They won the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

Championship title with 20 points advantage. The team won the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, winning the final 4–2 in a penalty shootout against

Luzern Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

. Basel had started in the

2012–13 UEFA Champions League The 2012–13 UEFA Champions League was the 58th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 21st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was p ...

in the qualifying rounds. But were knocked out of the competition by

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

in the play-off round. They then continued in the

2012–13 UEFA Europa League The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Amsterdam Are ...

group stage. Ending the group in second position, Basel continued in the knockout phase and advanced as far as the

semi-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

, there being matched against the reigning

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 ...

holders Chelsea. Chelsea won both games advancing 5–2 on aggregate, eventually winning the competition. At the end of the Super League season 2012–13 Steinhöfer won his third Championship title with the team. In the

2012–13 Swiss Cup The 2012–13 Swiss Cup was the 88th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. The competition commenced on 14 September 2012 with the first game of Round 1 and ended on 20 May 2013 with the Final. The winners of the competition, Gr ...

Basel reached the final and played in the

Stadion Wankdorf Wankdorf Stadium () is a football stadium in Bern, Switzerland. The second largest all-seater football stadium in Switzerland, it is the home ground of BSC Young Boys. It was also one of the venues for UEFA Euro 2008. History The present-da ...

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

against the

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

. Steinhöfer scored in the 71st minute, a left footed shot from about 10 Meters out, that was slightly deflected off the back of a defender. However GC drew level and won the affair 4–3 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time. In a long season with a total of 76 games (62 in League, Cup, European Champions League, Europa League and 14 test matches) he had a total of 63 appearances. After two and a half years in Basel his contract was not extended. During his time with the club, Steinhöfer played a total of 149 games for Basel scoring a total of three goals. 76 of these games were in the

, eight in the

, 26 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 39 were friendly games. He scored one goal in the domestic league, one in the cup and the other was scored during the test games.

Frequent club changes

For the 2013/14 season he moved to the Spanish first division team

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

, and on 3 November 2013 (12th matchday) he played his debut for them in the 2-3 defeat in the away game against FC Málaga. He stayed with Betis only until the end of the year. Subsequently, Steinhöfer returned to Germany and played for 2. Bundesliga club

1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; ''sechzig'' locally ; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of the German football pyramid. Their current home gr ...

. His contract was dissolved on 1 February 2015. Just on the following day he moved to league rivals

VfR Aalen Verein für Rasenspiele 1921 Aalen e.V., known simply as VfR Aalen, is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Aalen, Baden-Württemberg. The football team is part of a larger sports club which also offers its members gymnastics, tab ...

, signing a contract until the end of the season. Aalen suffered relegation and his contract ran out. On 17 June 2015, Steinhöfer's signing was announced by

Sparta Prague Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in central Europe, winning t ...

of the Czech Republic. He played there for one season. Following that Steinhöfer went to

SV Darmstadt 98 Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German professional association football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was bri ...

who at that time played in the German Bundesliga. Darmstadt ended the season bottom of the table and they suffered relegation to the 2. Bundesliga. Steinhöfers contract was canceled at the end of 2017–18 season. In September 2018 Steinhöfer signed a contract with amateur club VfB Eichstätt in

Regionalliga Bayern The Regionalliga Bayern () is the highest association football league in the state of Bavaria () and the Bavarian football league system. It is one of five Regionalligas in German football, the fourth tier of the German football league system, b ...

and Steinhöfer concluded his professional career.Eichstätts Coup mit Steinhöfer

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 ...

, 4 September 2018; accessdate 5 September 2018 (German)

International career

Steinhöfer played for multiple Germany national youth teams, including the Germany U21 team.

Career statistics

Honours

Bayern Munich II *

IFA Shield The IFA Shield is a football competition organized by the Indian Football Association, the football governing body in the Indian state of West Bengal. The IFA came into existence in 1893, and was named after the association. The IFA Shield to ...

: 2005 Red Bull Salzburg *

: 2006–07 FC Basel *

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

: 2011–12 *

Uhrencup The Uhrencup is a association football, club football tournament, held annually in Grenchen and Biel/Bienne, Biel in Switzerland. The Uhrencup is seen as a testament to the major influence that is exercised by the local watchmaking industry on the ...

: 2011

References

External links

Markus Steinhöfer
at eintracht-archiv.de * {{DEFAULTSORT:Steinhofer, Markus 1986 births Living people People from Weißenburg in Bayern Footballers from Middle Franconia German men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Germany men's under-21 international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Swiss Super League players La Liga players Czech First League players FC Bayern Munich II players FC Red Bull Salzburg players Eintracht Frankfurt players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players FC Basel players Real Betis players TSV 1860 Munich players VfR Aalen players AC Sparta Prague players SV Darmstadt 98 players VfB Eichstätt players German expatriate men's footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Austria German expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland German expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain German expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic Expatriate men's footballers in the Czech Republic 21st-century German sportsmen