Thomas Hitzlsperger

Thomas Hitzlsperger was born in 1982 in Munich. He began to play football at Forstinning, then joined the youth system of Bayern Munich and in 2000 he moved to Aston Villa. He made his first team debut on 13 January 2001 in the match against Liverpool, ended in a 0-3 loss, though throughout his first season there he was used only once and had a short loan period at Chesterfield. Hitzlsperger played for Aston Villa until 2005 and in summer he moved to VfB Stuttgart. In his second season there he made 30 league appearances and scored seven goals, helping his side to win the Bundesliga in 2006/07. In August 2007 Hitzlsperger penned a new contract with Stuttgart which bound him for three more years.

In the winter transfer window in 2010 he switched to Lazio for six months and then, in June 2010, he moved to West Ham United. His debut there was in February 2011 in the FA Cup game against Burnley.

In August 2011 Thomas Hitzlsperger joined Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg and played for them until his move to the Premier League team Everton on 19 October 2012.

He was called to play for the Germany U19 and U21 teams and earned his first cap for the senior team on 9 October 2004 when he substituted Bernd Schneider in a 2-0 victory over Iran.