Xaver Schlager (; born 28 September 1997) is an Austrian

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 plays as

central midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

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 ...

club

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

and the Austria national team.

Club career

Red Bull Salzburg

After playing for the youth team of SC St. Valentin, Schlager joined the

FC Red Bull Salzburg Fußballclub Red Bull Salzburg, commonly known as simply Red Bull Salzburg, is an Austrian professional Association football, football club based in Wals-Siezenheim, that competes in the Austrian Bundesliga, the top flight of Football in Austria ...

Academy in 2011, where he played in all teams. In 2015, Schlager was transferred to FC Liefering, the feeder team of FC Red Bull Salzburg. During the 2017–18 season, Salzburg had their best ever European campaign. They finished top of their Europa League group, for a record fourth time, before beating

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

and

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 ...

thus making their first ever appearance in the UEFA Europa League semi-final. On 3 May 2018, he played in the Europa League semi-finals as

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

beat Salzburg 3–2 on aggregate to secure a place in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

VfL Wolfsburg

On the 26 June 2019, Schlager signed for

club

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

. During his time with Wolfsburg, Schlager made 81 appearances in all competitions, including 69 in the Bundesliga. He missed 20 league matches through injury during his final season, but still averaged 27 pressures per game whilst producing a goal and two assists.

RB Leipzig

On 17 June 2022, Schlager joined Bundesliga rivals

, after the club activated a release clause in his Wolfsburg contract. He signed a contract until 2026. Schlager helped Leipzig to win the

German Cup The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English, 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 Bundes ...

and

German Super Cup The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (English: German Footbal ...

in 2023, starting the latter, coming on as substitute in the German Cup Final. In early May of 2024, Schlager was playing against Hoffenheim, when he was substituted off with an injury. Later tests confirmed that his ACL was torn, and underwent surgery, therefore missing the European Championship in the summer.

International career

On 23 March 2018, Schlager debuted for the Austrian senior squad in a friendly 3–0 victory over

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. The same year on 18 September, he scored his first goal in a

2018–19 UEFA Nations League The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League was the inaugural season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. The league phase of the competition ...

match against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Red Bull Salzburg *

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

: 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19 *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for a record 27th time. Wo ...

: 2015–16, 2016–17, 2018–19 RB Leipzig *

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 ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

DFL-Supercup The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off association football, football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (E ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

References

External links

Profile
at the RB Leipzig website * * * (national team) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlager, Xaver 1997 births Living people Footballers from Linz Men's association football midfielders Austrian men's footballers Austria men's youth international footballers Austria men's under-21 international footballers Austria men's international footballers FC Liefering players FC Red Bull Salzburg players VfL Wolfsburg players VfL Wolfsburg II players RB Leipzig players Austrian Football Bundesliga players 2. Liga (Austria) players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players UEFA Euro 2020 players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany 21st-century Austrian sportsmen