Nico Cedric Schlotterbeck (; born 1 December 1999) is a German 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 club

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

and the Germany national team. He is known for his aerial ability, speed, strength and aggressive tackling.

Club career

SC Freiburg

Schlotterbeck debuted for

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions ...

on 9 March 2019, coming on as a half-time substitute for

Philipp Lienhart Philipp Lienhart (born 11 July 1996) is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Bundesliga club SC Freiburg and the Austria national team. Club career Rapid Wien Born in Lilienfeld, Lower Austria, Lienhart joined ...

in the 2–1 home win against

Hertha BSC 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 league system, German footbal ...

. In his final match for Freiburg, the club lost the DFB-Pokal Final on penalties but Schlotterbeck was awarded the man of the match.

Loan to Union Berlin

On 31 July 2020, Schlotterbeck joined

Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as Union Berlin (), is a professional Football in Germany, German football club based in Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweide was fo ...

on a one-year loan.

Borussia Dortmund

On 2 May 2022,

announced the signing of Schlotterbeck on a five-year deal, starting from the 2022–23 season. He joined for a reported €25 million transfer fee. He would almost win the league with Dortmund in his first season, but merely became runners-up due to goal difference. In the 2023–24 season, he achieved the highest

tackling Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football ** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking up ...

success rate in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

at 71%, in addition to winning possession over 240 times, he also played a crucial role in his club's qualification to the Champions League final alongside fellow centre-back

Mats Hummels Mats Julian Hummels (; born 16 December 1988) is a German former professional Association football, footballer who played as a centre-back. Known for his well-timed tackles, accurate long passes from the back, aerial ability and strength, he is r ...

International career

Schlotterbeck got his debut call-up to the Germany national team under coach

Hansi Flick Hans-Dieter "Hansi" Flick (; born 24 February 1965) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the manager of La Liga club Barcelona. Flick played for SV Sandhausen, Bayern Munich, and 1. FC Köln during his career as a fo ...

for

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

in September 2021. He made his debut against Israel in a friendly on 27 March 2022. Later that year, on 10 November, he was named in the 26-man squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

in Qatar. Schlotterbeck was named in Germany's squad for

UEFA Euro 2024 The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...

Personal life

Schlotterbeck is the nephew of former professional footballer Niels Schlotterbeck, who played for Freiburg. His older brother, Keven, is a professional footballer who plays for Bavarian side

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. T ...

. Schlotterbeck's cousin, Sandrine, appeared on the seventh series of the German edition of ''Love Island'' in 2022.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

SC Freiburg *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

runner-up: 2021–22 Borussia Dortmund *

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 ...

runner-up: 2023–24 Germany U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

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 ...

Individual *

Team of the Tournament:

Team of the Season: 2021–22,

2022–23 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 ...

, 2024–25 *''

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 ...

'' Bundesliga Team of the Season: 2021–22 *Bundesliga Player of the Month: March 2025 * VDV Bundesliga Team of the Season: 2024–25

References

External links

Profile
at the Borussia Dortmund website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlotterbeck, Nico 1999 births Living people Footballers from Waiblingen German men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Germany men's youth international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's international footballers SC Freiburg II players SC Freiburg players 1. FC Union Berlin players Borussia Dortmund players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players 2022 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2024 players People from Rems-Murr-Kreis 21st-century German sportsmen