Moritz Volz (born 21 January 1983) 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 ...

, media pundit and scout. He 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 ...

with

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

FC St. Pauli Fußball-Club St. Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St. Pauli (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg. The team plays in the Bundesliga from the 2024–25 Bundesli ...

and

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 ...

Club career

Early career

Volz was born in

Siegen Siegen () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg (region), Arnsberg region. The university town (n ...

and started his career in his native Germany at

, before being spotted by

while playing for the German youth team. He was offered a contract and joined the Gunners in the summer of 1999. Volz's debut for the Gunners came in a League Cup defeat to

in 2000. With the club's academy, Volz also won the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. He made another appearance for Arsenal's first team a year later in a League Cup defeat to

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

. In February 2003, he was loaned out to

, where he impressed by scoring on his debut against

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

and going on to make nine further appearances for the Dons. He returned from loan in the summer of the same year before joining

, again on loan, in August 2003. The move was made permanent in January 2004.

Fulham

At Fulham, Volz attained cult-figure status with the fans, in part due to his commitment, passion and community involvement. He was also popular with the club's faithful given that he rode his bicycle to home games. He had several nicknames at

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football stadium in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 29,589; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game agains ...

, such as '220 Volz', 'The Electrician', 'Mr Resistor', 'The Hoff' due to his adulation of

David Hasselhoff David Michael Hasselhoff (born July 17, 1952), nicknamed "The Hoff", is an American actor, singer, and television personality. He has set a Guinness World Record as the most watched man on TV. Hasselhoff first gained recognition on the soap ...

, 'The Lightbulb' and the rather simple 'Volzy'. For the match against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

on Saturday 21 October 2006, he had 'The Hoff' written on his boots for good luck and promptly scored his first goal in three years. Volz signed a contract extension on 9 December 2006, which kept him at the club until 2009. On 30 December 2006, he went on to score the 15,000th goal in

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

history for Fulham against Chelsea. Inevitably, this feat gave birth to the new nickname '15,000 Volz'. As he scored that goal, Volz donated £15,000 to three charitable organisations: Kick 4 Life, The

Prince's Trust The King's Trust (formerly the Prince's Trust) is a United Kingdom-based charity founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are unempl ...

, and Fulham Football Club's Community charity. In July 2008, Volz was awarded PPF Community Champion Award, which is associated with ''The Observer'' newspaper. On 28 August 2008, he signed for Championship side

on a season-long loan deal. Volz joined the club as he hoped to help the Tractor Boys get promoted to the Premier League. Altogether, he was capped a total of 22 times for the club. On 1 July 2009, he was released from Fulham as he came to the end of his contract and was so praised by the club for his loyal service. Volz sent a farewell message to Fulham supporters upon the club's website. While on the lookout for a new team, he kept training with the club to maintain his fitness and also did media work for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

at the

2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship began on 15 June 2009, and was the 17th UEFA European Under-21 Championship. This was the first tournament after the competition reverted to a two-year format, following the single-year 2007 UEFA Europ ...

. On 2 January 2010, Volz got a trial with former club

. He joined the team at

Chiclana de la Frontera Chiclana de la Frontera () is a town and municipality in southwest Spain, in the province of Cádiz, Andalucía, near the Gulf of Cádiz. It belongs to the association of municipalities of the Bay of Cádiz (Bahía de Cádiz), the provincial capita ...

for a training camp.

FC St. Pauli

Volz eventually joined up with

on 15 June 2010, signing a two-year contract. He made his debut on 5 November 2010 against

1860 Munich

Volz joined

on 5 June 2012, signing a three-year contract. At 1860 Munich he won the

2014–15 2. Bundesliga The 2014–15 2. Bundesliga was the 41st season of the 2. Bundesliga, Germany's second-level Association football, football competition. Teams A total of 18 teams contest the league, including 12 sides from the 2013–14 2. Bundesliga, 2013– ...

relegation playoffs, with the club thus staying within the league.

International career

Although Volz was not part of the German team that reached the semi-finals of the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

on home soil in 2006, he was an ever-present force in

Dieter Eilts Dieter Eilts (born 13 December 1964) is a German former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. After retiring as a player, he began a managerial career and also worked for SV Werder Bremen as director of the football acade ...

' successful under-21 side. He helped the team qualify for the European Championships in summer 2006. Volz was included in the senior squad for the 17 November 2004 game in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

against

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

but did not appear on the field.

Scouting and media work

Volz wrote for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' and worked as a

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

for

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports Media is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland and in Tbilisi, Georgia, broadcasting throughout select Eurasian countries, and the Philippines. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Iris ...

and

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

while playing in the UK. He later worked as a colour commentator for

DAZN DAZN (; pronounced "da zone") is a British Over-the-top media service, over-the-top sports Sports broadcasting, streaming and entertainment platform. Founded in 2007 as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is o ...

in Germany. After his retirement in the summer of 2015 Volz worked in 1860 Munich's youth department. He was later a scout for Arsenal.

Career statistics

Honours

Arsenal *

: 1999–2000, 2000–01

References

External links

* *
Interview
in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Volz, Moritz 1983 births Footballers from Siegen Living people German men's footballers Men's association football defenders Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's youth international footballers FC Schalke 04 players Arsenal F.C. players Wimbledon F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players FC St. Pauli players TSV 1860 Munich players Premier League players English Football League players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Association football scouts German expatriate men's footballers German expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Galatasaray S.K. (football) non-playing staff 21st-century German sportsmen