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 ...

, media pundit and scout. He is the assistant coach at

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other dep ...

. Volz played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

with

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhi ...

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,

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

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professio ...

FC St. Pauli Fußball-Club St Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St Pauli (), is a German professional football club based in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga. The football department is part of a larger ...

and

1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. 1860 Munich was one of the founding members ...

Club career

Early career

Volz was born in

Siegen Siegen () is a 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. The university town (nearly 20,000 students in the 2018–2019 winter semeste ...

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 In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

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. I ...

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 ...

and

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

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

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

. In February 2003, he was loaned out to Wimbledon, where he impressed by scoring on his debut against Brighton 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 ground 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 22,384; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game against ...

, 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 You ...

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

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa 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 (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

history for Fulham against

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 const ...

. 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 Prince's Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth y Tywysog) is a charity in the United Kingdom 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 u ...

, 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 subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It h ...

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 2006–07 compe ...

. 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 southwestern 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 ...

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 football competition. Teams A total of 18 teams contest the league, including 12 sides from the 2013–14 season, two sides directly relegated from t ...

relegation playoffs, with the club thus staying within the league. Volz went on to declare an end to his playing days soon afterward.

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 concept i ...

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 midfielder. After retiring as a player, he began a managerial career and also worked for SV Werder Bremen as director of the football academy. Pla ...

' 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 German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

against

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

but did not appear on the field.

Scouting and media work

Volz wrote for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'' and worked as a

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

for

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

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

DAZN DAZN ( "da zone") is a global sports entertainment platform. Different to traditional linear and satellite broadcasting, DAZN is an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service meaning that it is delivered directly to viewers via the internet. The ...

in Germany. After his retirement in the summer of 2015 Volz worked as a scout for TSV 1860 and he is currently Arsenal's main German scout.

Career statistics

Honours

Arsenal *

: 1999–2000, 2000–01

References

External links

* *
Interview
in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Volz, Moritz 1983 births Sportspeople from Siegen Footballers from Arnsberg (region) 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