Timo Hildebrand (born 5 April 1979) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. Hildebrand holds a

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 ...

record for keeping a clean sheet for the most consecutive minutes (884 minutes), which he set during the 2003–04 season.

Club career

VfB Stuttgart

150px, left, Hildebrand celebrating the win of the Bundesliga with Stuttgart, 2007 After starting his career at the little-known FV Hofheim/Ried, Hildebrand joined the

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

youth team in 1994. In the 1999–2000 season, Hildebrand played in six Bundesliga matches. From the summer of 2000, he was the club's number one goalkeeper and contributed largely to Stuttgart's successes, particularly as part of what became known as "Stuttgart's young wild ones" team under coach Felix Magath. He began the 2000–01 season by playing in eight matches in the Intertoto Cup. He went on making 32 Bundesliga appearances, five German Cup appearances, and eight

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. The following season, he made 34 appearances. VfB Stuttgart managed to be Bundesliga runners-up in 2003. He had made 20 Bundesliga appearances, one German Cup appearance, four UEFA Cup appearances, and eight Intertoto Cup matches. He survived the Champions League group stage the following season, before bowing out to Chelsea FC in the second round. He made 43 appearances during the 2003–04 season. Hildebrand also played a significant role in Stuttgart's victorious 2006–07 Bundesliga campaign, figuring as a backbone for the next generation of "wild ones" like Serdar Tasci or

Mario Gómez Mario Gómez García (; born 10 July 1985) is a German former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker. He represented the Germany national football team, Germany national team ...

and helping Stuttgart provide the third-best defence of the season. The 2006–07 campaign remains his greatest domestic success to this day, and his last season with Stuttgart as in December 2006 he did not accept the club's offer to extend his contract. He made 39 appearances during the 2006–07 season.

Valencia

Hildebrand joined the Spanish club

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

on a free transfer on 3 July 2007, with Valencia unveiling Hildebrand via a news conference the next day on 4 July 2007. He stated in the news conference that he would "give everything" to the club. Hildebrand was being viewed as a replacement to the club's long-serving goalkeeper Santiago Cañizares. He made his debut for Valencia on 29 August, for the third qualification round second leg of

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 ...

against

IF Elfsborg Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional association football, football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Alls ...

. He played the full 90 minutes of that game of which they won 2–1. Hildebrand was Valencia's first-choice goalkeeper for most of the 2007–08 season, collecting a

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

trophy on the way. After the departure of manager

Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman (; born 21 March 1963) is a Dutch professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the manager of the Netherlands national football team, Netherlands national team. Koeman scor ...

, Hildebrand lost his place in the first team as Koeman's successor

Unai Emery Unai Emery Etxegoien (born 3 November 1971) is a Spanish Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player who is the manager of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa. He is widely regarded as o ...

preferred newly signed Renan Brito. According to media coverage, Hildebrand refused consignment to the bench and was eventually cut from the squad altogether. Hildebrand had not been playing for Valencia for several months since the Supercopa de España second leg on 24 August 2008. On 4 December 2008, he left Valencia by mutual consent.

Hoffenheim

On 10 December 2008, Hildebrand signed for the Bundesliga side 1899 Hoffenheim. He made his Bundesliga debut for Hoffenheim on 31 January 2009 in their 2–0 win at home to

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the German reunification, reunificatio ...

, being substituted in the 60th minute due to an injury. During the 2008–09 season, he made 14 appearances. During the 2009–10 season, he made 32 appearances. In summer 2010, Hildebrand left Hoffenheim.

Sporting

Hildebrand signed a one-year deal with Portuguese club

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

and debuted on 16 October 2010 in a 2–1 win over GD Estoril Praia in the Portuguese cup. After Hildebrand left Sporting, he was on trial with

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

on their pre-season tour of USA before the 2011–12 season, but they did not take up the option to sign him.

Schalke 04

Hildebrand signed for Schalke 04 in the middle of the 2011–12 Bundesliga campaign after starting keeper Ralf Fährmann was injured.

Eintracht Frankfurt

On 25 September 2014 Hildebrand signed for

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...

in the wake of a major injury to their first-choice keeper Kevin Trapp. He made three appearances. This final top-flight matches for Eintracht were the last of over 300 Bundesliga appearances for Hildebrand.

International career

upHildebrand with Germany in 2006 After collecting 18 Under-21-caps, Hildebrand made his full 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 ...

on 28 April 2004 in a friendly against Romania in Bucharest as he came on as a half-time substitute for Oliver Kahn with Germany 0–4 down, and eventually lost 1–5. Hildebrand was selected for three consecutive tournaments for Germany, Euro 2004, 2005 Confederations Cup and 2006 World Cup, as Germany's third-choice goalkeeper behind Jens Lehmann and Oliver Kahn. He played his first competitive international at the 2005 Confederations Cup against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

(final score 2–2). He was the only member of the 2006 World Cup squad who did not play at the tournament, as Germany came third on home soil. After Kahn's retirement from international football in 2006, Hildebrand stepped up to become Germany's number two and was Jens Lehmann's natural replacement during the Euro 2008 qualification. Somewhat surprisingly, Joachim Löw dropped Hildebrand from the final squad for the

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

and picked Robert Enke and René Adler ahead of him. Although Löw stated that Hildebrand was an important player and may return to the set-up in near future, he never appeared for Germany since his omission from their squad for Euro 2008.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

VfB Stuttgart *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

: 2006–07 *

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: 2006–07 Valencia *

: 2007–08 Germany *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

third place:

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...

third place:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Individual * ESM Team of the Year: 2003–04

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hildebrand, Timo 1979 births Living people Footballers from Worms, Germany Men's association football goalkeepers German men's footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's international footballers Germany men's B international footballers Germany men's youth international footballers German expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal German expatriate sportspeople in Spain German expatriate sportspeople in Portugal VfB Stuttgart players VfB Stuttgart II players Valencia CF players TSG 1899 Hoffenheim players Sporting CP footballers FC Schalke 04 players FC Schalke 04 II players Eintracht Frankfurt players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players La Liga players Primeira Liga players UEFA Euro 2004 players 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players