Slawomir Paul Freier (Polish: Sławomir Paweł Freier; born 26 July 1979) is a German football coach and former player who was usually employed as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He is currently the assistant manager of

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seasons in the Bundesli ...

U19.

Biography

Childhood and youth

Freier was born in 1979 in the

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...

n city of

Bytom Bytom (Polish pronunciation: ; Silesian: ''Bytōm, Bytōń'', german: Beuthen O.S.) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland, the city is 7 km northwest of Katowice, the regional capital. ...

(German: Beuthen). At the age of 5, he joined the club ŁTS Łabędy in

Gliwice Gliwice (; german: Gleiwitz) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional cap ...

, Poland. At age 11, Freier emigrated with his parents from Upper Silesia to Germany, where the family settled in

Arnsberg Arnsberg (; wep, Arensperg) is a town in the Hochsauerland county, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the location of the Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg administration and one of the three local administration offices of the Ho ...

- Holzen in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhab ...

. Newly arrived there, he joined SV Holzen and three years later moved to BSV Menden. In his youth, Freier received an offer from

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional foot ...

, but his father refused a move to Dortmund. In 1996, Freier joined the youth team of

First spell at Bochum

In 1998, Freier was part of Bochum's second team, and on 5 November 1999, he made his professional debut for the first team in a 2–0 win against SV Waldhof Mannheim on matchday eleven of the 1999–2000 2. Bundesliga campaign. In the 89th minute, he replaced Delron Buckley. With Bochum, Freier celebrated promotion to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

. On 12 August 2000, he made his debut in the Bundesliga in a 1–0 win on first matchday against

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern () or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to football, the club also operates in severa ...

. On 28 April 2001, 31st match day, Freier scored his first goal in the Bundesliga in the 1–1 draw in the derby against

FC 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 ...

. At the end of the season, he had made 22 appearances and scored one goal and VfL Bochum was relegated from the Bundesliga. In the 2001–02 season, Freier made 30 appearances scoring seven goals and was promoted again with the VfL Bochum to the Bundesliga. In the next season, Bochum reached the ninth place with Freier making 32 appearances and scoring seven goals. In the 2003–04 season, he played in 27 games and scored one goal. This season, VfL Bochum placed in the final standings in front of their local rivals from

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it li ...

, FC Schalke and Borussia Dortmund (Schalke being a district of Gelsenkirchen).

Spell at Bayer Leverkusen

In four seasons at Bayer Leverkusen between 2004 and 2008, Freier amassed 17 goals in 112 league matches.

Return to VfL Bochum and retirement

Freier returned to

at the end of the 2007–08 season, signing a five-year contract.

Post-retirement

Six months after retiring as a player, Freier was hired as assistant coach for the U16 team of

. On 8 June 2015, it was confirmed that Freier was the new assistant manager of the U19 team of Bochum.

International

Freier was a member of the

German national team German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, winning 19

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

. He was initially named in Germany's

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

squad but had to withdraw through injury. He was called up as a backup squad member for the 2006 World Cup. His only goal for Germany came in a 4–1 win over

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

in June 2003.

Statistics

¹ 2010–11 includes the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

promotion/relegation playoffs.

References

External links

* * *
Leverkusen who's who
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freier, Paul 1979 births Living people German footballers Germany men's international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers VfL Bochum players VfL Bochum II players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players People from Bytom Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Men's association football wingers German people of Polish descent Polish emigrants to Germany Naturalized citizens of Germany