Steffen Freund (born 19 January 1970) is a German former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder in both the German and English top flights. He was capped 21 times for his country and played a significant part in Germany's UEFA Euro 1996 winning campaign.

Club career

Freund started his career at Stahl Brandenburg, coming through their youth system. He has said that the Stasi made an unsuccessful attempt to recruit him as an informer during his time at the club. In 1991, he was transferred to FC Schalke 04 and he established himself as an important midfield player. Schalke were forced to sell Freund due to financial reasons in 1993 to

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 ...

where he stayed until 1998. During his time at Dortmund, he won the league twice in 1995 and 1996 and gained a Champions League medal in 1997, but was left out of the squad for the final altogether. In December 1998, Freund transferred to English Premiership club Tottenham Hotspur. During his time with the London club, he won the League Cup in

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

, starting in the centre of midfield in Spurs's 1–0 win over Leicester City. He stayed at the club until 2003, and despite never scoring a goal in 131 appearances across all competitions, he became a firm fans favourite at the club for his heart, work ethic and commitment. On 4 December 2009, Freund was inducted into the Tottenham Hotspur hall of fame alongside Darren Anderton. Famously throttled by Duncan Ferguson in a league game Vs Everton. The image has gone on to be an Internet Legend. At the tail end of his career he went on to have short spells at 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Leicester City.

International career

Between 1995 and 1998, he won 21 caps for the Germany national team. He won UEFA Euro 1996 with Germany, where he missed out on a place in the final because of an injury in their semi-final win over

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He also appeared at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

, where Germany fell at the quarter-final stage to

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

; Freund was an unused substitute in the match.

Coaching career

On 1 September 2007, Freund was appointed assistant head-coach of the German U-20 team. On 5 December 2007, he was named as a new assistant to

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

coach Berti Vogts for the time of the African Nations Cup. He then resumed his work as assistant to German U20-manager Frank Engel. In May 2009 he finished his coaching badges and on 17 July 2009 he was appointed manager of the German U-16 team signing a two-year contract. A year later he began managing the German U-17 team leading them to a runners up medal at the 2011 UEFA European U-17 Football Championship and a third place at the World Cup in Mexico. He then started working with the new generation of U-16 players. On 11 July 2012, Freund was appointed assistant head coach of Tottenham Hotspur. On 5 August 2014 he was appointed International Technical Coordinator. On 21 April 2017, while on Sky Sports, Freund stated that he was not interested in getting back into coaching. He instead was enjoying the freedom from pressure which he was experiencing as a pundit.

Television career

In 2006, he appeared alongside

Boris Becker Boris Franz Becker (; born 22 November 1967) is a German former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Becker won 49 c ...

in a special England v. Germany edition of the popular panel show '' They Think It's All Over''. At the start of the 2011–12 season, Freund began working as a pundit for

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

's coverage of the German Bundesliga and

Sky Deutschland Sky Deutschland GmbH, branded as Sky, is a German media company that operates a direct broadcast satellite Pay TV platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (through Sky Switzerland). It provides a collection of basic and premium digital su ...

. He is also a co-commentator for the English world feed of the Bundesliga.

Personal life

Freund is married and has one son and two daughters. His son, Niklas, was as a football goalkeeper for SV Empor Berlin FC, having previously played for VCD Athletic and Redbridge, before switched over in May 2018 to

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

Wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

for the Berlin Bears, Berlin Adler Academy and currently at Berlin Rebels in the German Football League.

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

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 ...

: 1994–95, 1995–96 * DFB-Supercup: 1995 *

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 ...

: 1996–97 * Intercontinental Cup: 1997 Tottenham Hotspur * Football League Cup: 1998–99 Germany * European Championship: 1996 Individual * Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame: December 2009 Inductee

References

External links

* * *
Steffen Freund
at tottenhamhotspur.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Freund, Steffen Living people 1970 births Sportspeople from Brandenburg an der Havel Men's association football midfielders Premier League players Expatriate men's footballers in England German men's footballers East German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers FC Schalke 04 players Borussia Dortmund players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players German expatriate men's footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA European Championship–winning players Bundesliga players German expatriate sportspeople in England Footballers from Brandenburg UEFA Champions League–winning players Sportspeople from Bezirk Potsdam