Sidney Sam (; born 31 January 1988) 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 ...

who played as a forward or winger. He was known for his explosive

speed In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...

and

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. As ...

style.

Club career

Early career

Sam started playing football at TuS Mettenhof. After that, Sam played at Kilia Kiel. In the summer of 2002, he signed for the city rivals of Kilia Kiel, Holstein Kiel. At the beginning of the 2004–05 season, Sam moved on to the

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

youth system, and in 2006, he was promoted to the second team. In the 2007–08 season, he became part of the professional pool of Hamburg. On 20 December 2007, Sam made his debut 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 ...

against

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

when he came on as a substitute for David Jarolím. He joined

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

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

for the 2008–09 season and was loaned for another season on 1 July 2009.

Bayer Leverkusen

Sam then moved to

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

in 2010 signing a five-year

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

. He started off the season well and on 8 November 2010, he played against his former club

. Down 1–0, he started the comeback when he smashed a driven shot into the net. Patrick Helmes then completed the comeback as he made it 2–1. The day belonged to Sam as he smashed home a first time volley almost 25 meters out, stunned the entire

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

and made a name for himself that day while the

goal A goal or objective is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan, and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to ...

was crowned

Goal of the Month (Germany) The Goal of the Month () is, like the ''Goal of the Year (Germany), Goal of the Year'', the ''ARD Goal of the Decade'' and ''Goal of the Century'', an individual soccer award selected by viewers of ''Sportschau'' (German TV channel ARD (broadcast ...

. On 17 February 2011, he scored a double in Bayer's

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

match against Metalist Kharkiv, with both last-minute goals coming in added time.

Schalke 04

On 8 January 2014, Sam signed a four-year contract with Schalke 04 running until 30 June 2018. He joined S04 for a transfer fee of €2,500,000 in June 2014, upon completion of the 2013–14 Bundesliga season. On 11 May 2015, he was suspended indefinitely from the club in the aftermath of a loss to 1. FC Köln.

Loan to Darmstadt 98

In January 2017, Bundesliga club SV Darmstadt 98 announced that Sam has signed a loan agreement with the club until 30 June 2017.

Short spells at the end of his professional career

On 31 August 2017, VfL Bochum signed Sam on a two-year deal. On 2 October 2019, Sam signed a contract with Austrian club

SCR Altach Sportclub Rheindorf Altach, also known as Rheindorf Altach, SCR Altach or simply SCRA, is an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club based in Altach, Vorarlberg. It plays in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club is currently ...

until the end of the 2019–20 season. His last professional club was

Antalyaspor Antalyaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional multi-sport club based in Antalya, southern Turkey. The club's colours are red and white. The association football, football side play their home matches at the Antalya Stadium. In Turkey, the cl ...

in Turkey.

Retirement

Sam announced his retirement from playing at the age of 33 in September 2021. Overall he played more than 220 matches in the first and

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

level of the German league pyramid. In December 2022 he started his coaching training with

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jer ...

International career

Born to a German mother and Nigerian father, Sam would have been eligible to play for the Nigeria national team, but decided early on to represent his country of birth. He was a German youth national player, starring in Germany's under-19 and under-20 teams. On 29 May 2013, he made his senior international debut for

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in a friendly game against

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

in Boca Raton,

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. On 8 May 2014, Sam was named to the 30-man provisional squad for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

by German national team manager, Joachim Löw. But Sam didn't make the cut and his five internationals in 2013 became his final total with "Die Mannschaft."

Style of play

Sam has been likened by observers in German football to the Dutch winger Arjen Robben of Bayern Munich, due to his explosive

and

style and possibly due to his frequent deployment on the

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

and as an outside forward, cutting inside on his favoured left-foot to unleash his fierce shots, which leads to him scoring spectacular long-range goals. Sam is likened to a young Ryan Giggs, due to his ability to dribble with the ball at top speed. His comparison to Ryan Giggs and Arjen Robben is seen in the influence of the way he shoots and gets into goal-scoring situations coming in from both flanks on the

football pitch A football pitch or soccer field is the playing surface for the game of association football. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play". The pitch is ty ...

. He utilizes his explosive speed by running-in-behind defenders and he is often as well deployed as an outside forward and striker.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sam, Sidney 1988 births Living people Men's association football forwards Men's association football wingers Footballers from Kiel German men's footballers Hamburger SV players Hamburger SV II players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players FC Schalke 04 players SV Darmstadt 98 players VfL Bochum players SC Rheindorf Altach players FC Schalke 04 managers FC Schalke 04 non-playing staff German sportspeople of Nigerian descent Germany men's youth international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Süper Lig players German expatriate men's footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Austria German expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey 21st-century German sportsmen