Piotr Artur Trochowski (, born 22 March 1984) 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 le ...

who played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

. According to his

FIFA World Cup 2010 , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

profile he is a

playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a player who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing passing moves which lead to goals, through their vision, technique, ball control, creativit ...

known for "his speed, agility, tricky dribbling and refined technique." Formed at

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

, he spent six-and-a-half seasons at

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

before transferring to

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Gua ...

in 2011. Sevilla cancelled his contract in September 2014, after which he filed a lawsuit. In 2015, he signed for

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as ...

on a one-year deal. Trochowski made his full international debut for

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 2006, and earned 35 caps over four years. He was part of their squads which reached the

UEFA Euro 2008 Final The UEFA Euro 2008 Final was the final match of Euro 2008, the thirteenth edition of the European Football Championship, UEFA's competition for national football teams. The match was played at Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna, Austria, on 29 June 20 ...

and the semi-finals of the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

Early life

Trochowski was born in

Tczew Tczew (, csb, Dërszewò; formerly ) is a city on the Vistula River in Pomerelia, Eastern Pomerania, Kociewie, northern Poland with 59,111 inhabitants (December 2021). The city is known for its Old Town and the Vistula Bridge, or Bridge of Tczew ...

in Poland. The family, with father Wiesław and mother Alicja, left for

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

under the

right of return The right of return is a principle in international law which guarantees everyone's right of voluntary return to, or re-entry to, their country of origin or of citizenship. The right of return is part of the broader human rights concept freedom of ...

when Piotr was five years old. All of his grandparents held

German nationality German nationality law details the conditions by which an individual holds German nationality. The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Act, which came into force on 1 January 1914. Germany is a member state of the Europ ...

for some period of time.

Club career

Early career

As a nine-year-old boy, Trochowski started his career with Billstedt Horn and then played for SC Concordia and

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 sp ...

, in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. In 1999, he got transferred to

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which play ...

, starting with its junior side then progressing to the amateur team. He made it also to Bayern's first team but was never a regular in this side, making only 13 appearances in the Bundesliga.

Hamburger SV

In January 2005, he moved back to Hamburg to play for

. Team manager

Thomas Doll Thomas Jens Uwe Doll (born 9 April 1966) is a German professional football manager and a former football player who is the current Manager of Persija Jakarta. He played as an attacking midfielder for F.C. Hansa Rostock, BFC Dynamo, Hamburger SV, ...

gave him a chance and Trochowski proved his worth. Within two seasons, he played himself into the starting line-up of the team, scoring five goals (including one nd an assistagainst former team Bayern Munich, in a 24 September 2005 2–0 home win) in his first full season as Hamburg reached the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

Sevilla

On 5 April 2011, Trochowski's agent

Roman Grill Roman Grill (born March 1, 1966) is a German former footballer who is now a player agent. A defender, Grill spent eleven years playing for Bayern Munich's reserve team, and made one first-team appearance, replacing Thomas Helmer in a UEFA Cup mat ...

confirmed that his client would move to

when his contract expired at the end of the season. He had been an irregular player for Hamburg during the second half of the season, making just two starts out of 11 possible Bundesliga matches after the winter break. In his first season with the club, he featured in 35

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

games, scoring one goal and providing two assists as Sevilla finished in a disappointing ninth place. On 15 September 2012, he smashed in a half-volley after only 69 seconds, to hand his side a 1–0 victory over reigning La Liga champions

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. In September 2014, Sevilla stated that the club and Trochowski terminated the contract by mutual consent, one year prior then contractually agreed. He disagreed, threatening a lawsuit against the club which was decided in his favor. Nevertheless, he was not included in Sevilla‘s squad throughout the season.

FC Augsburg

On 16 July 2015, Trochowski joined Bundesliga club

for a short trial before signing a full contract with Augsburg until the end of the 2015–16 season five days later. Having made few appearances due to injuries, he was released by Augsburg at the end of the season.

Retirement

Trochowski later retired. He returned to playing for about a year in 2020, scoring two goals in four appearances in the

Oberliga Hamburg The Oberliga Hamburg, sometimes referred to as ''Hamburg-Liga'', is the highest league in the German state of Hamburg, incorporating some of its surrounding districts. It is one of fourteen Oberligen in German football, the fifth tier of the Germa ...

for the third team of

. He announced his retirement in July 2021.

International career

Since Trochowski was born in Poland, he was eligible to play for

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. His mother sent several letters to the

Polish Football Association The Polish Football Association ( pl, Polski Związek Piłki Nożnej; PZPN) is the governing body of association football in Poland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without the Ekstraklasa), the Polish Cup and the Polish national footb ...

(PZPN), informing it about her talented son and about his willingness to cap for Poland. The PZPN, however, was not interested, which disappointed both Trochowski and his mother, and he chose to play for Germany. Trochowski said in response, "My heart is closer to Poland, but nobody there was interested in me, so I play for the Germans. There was no reply to my mother's letter, and the Germans were interested in me." He said this in an interview in August 2005. In the German daily ''

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allg ...

'', however, Trochowski said that, "Even back then, I wanted to play for Germany, because here I enjoyed my schooling and gained my footballing skills." Trochowski played for the German under-20 team at the

2003 FIFA World Youth Championship The 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in United Arab Emirates between 27 November and 19 December 2003. U20 Brazil claimed their fourth title. The 2003 championship was the 14th contested. The tournament was originally planned to be ...

. One year after his move to Hamburg, senior national coach

Joachim Löw Joachim Löw (born 3 February 1960) is a German football coach and former player. He was the manager of the Germany national team from 2006 until 2021. During his tenure as manager, he led Germany to victory at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil ...

called him for the first time, and he debuted on 7 October 2006 in a friendly against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

at the

Ostseestadion The Ostseestadion is the home stadium of FC Hansa Rostock, a German association football club, located in the city of Rostock. It has a capacity of 29,000. "Ostseestadion" translates in English to "Baltic Sea Stadium", and is named after the Ba ...

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

; he started the game and was replaced by

Torsten Frings Torsten Klaus Frings (born 22 November 1976) is a German former footballer and manager, who last managed SV Meppen. A former midfielder, throughout his career he played for several German clubs, namely Alemannia Aachen, Werder Bremen, Borussia D ...

for the final 14 minutes of the 2–0 victory. After having appeared six times during the qualification matches, Trochowski was selected for the final 23-man squad for

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

, but was unused as Germany reached the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. He scored his first international goal on 15 October 2008, the sole goal in a 2010 World Cup Qualifier against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, li, Jlabbach ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, the territory of Mönchengladbac ...

Personal life

Piotr is part of a football family – his three brothers are all semi-professional players: Christoph (plays for SC V/W Billstedt), Sławomir (plays for Hamm United) and Arkadiusz (plays for TuS Hamburg). His cousin

Krystian Krystian is a Polish language, Polish male given name that is a Polish form of the name Christian (given name), Christian, which means "follower of Christ".''Behind the Name''"Given Name Krystian" Retrieved on 12 January 2016. The name may refer t ...

is a German international rugby union player, playing for the

Berliner RC The Berliner Rugby Club is a German rugby union club from Berlin, currently playing in the Rugby-Bundesliga. History The club was formed in 1926. While very successful in its youth department, it has not managed similar achievements on the senio ...

in the

Rugby-Bundesliga The Rugby-Bundesliga is the highest level of the league system for rugby union in Germany, organised by the German Rugby Federation. The league is predominantly amateur, with only one club in the league being officially a professional outfit, t ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Trochowski goal.''

Honours

Bayern Munich *

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 footba ...

: 2002–03 *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

: 2002–03 *

DFB-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five teams of the previous ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Hamburger SV *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

Sevilla *

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

: 2013–14 Germany *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

third place:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

runner-up:

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

References

External links

* *
2010 FIFA World Cup profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Trochowski, Piotr 1984 births Living people People from Tczew Footballers from Pomeranian Voivodeship Polish emigrants to Germany Naturalized citizens of Germany German people of Polish descent German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Germany men's youth international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2008 players 2010 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Europa League winning players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players SC Concordia von 1907 players FC St. Pauli players FC Bayern Munich II players FC Bayern Munich footballers Hamburger SV players La Liga players Sevilla FC players FC Augsburg players German expatriate men's footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain