Arne Friedrich: biography

Arne Friedrich is a German international footballer who has represented his country at four major tournaments. A right back, though in recent years he has shown adeptness at center half, he currently plays for Vfl Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. He made his reputation at Hertha Berlin, a club he captained between 2004 and 2010.

Beginnings

Born in the town of Bad Oeynhausen on 29 May 1979, in West Germany, Friedrich joined his local club’s academy early. After being on the books of a number of small youth teams in the North-Rhine Westphalia region of reunified Germany, he made his debut for Regionalliga side SC Verl in 1999.

Career

Scouted by Arminia Bielefeld, Arne joined them on a professional contract in the summer of 2000. After a couple of years he established himself as one of the best defenders in the 2 Bundesliga and Hertha had an offer accepted for him to join Germany’s top flight. International breakthrough signing for Berlin coincided with his first call-up to the senior national side. Making his debut in an away fixture against Bulgaria, Friedrich has eighty caps to date, putting him twentieth on Germany’s all-time appearance list. Under Rudi Voller he played as a wingback as part of a back five that was tactically disastrous. Germany failed to make it through the group stages of Euro 2004 and Jurgen Klinsmann took over the job as national team manager. During 2004-2008, Arne remained in contention and emerged as the first choice right back for his country ahead of Andreas Hinkel. Finishing third at both the 2005 Confederations Cup and the 2006 World Cup on home soil he played an understated role in Germany’s improvement under Klinsmann. After national assistant Joachim Low took charge Friedrich found himself out of favour and replaced by Marcell Jansen. When he was injured during Euro 2008 however, Arne stepped up from the subs bench to help Germany make it all the way to the final where they lost to Spain. 2009-present Hertha were relegated from the Bundesliga at the end of the 2009-10 season after an abysmal campaign. With a heavy heart and the desire to continue his international career, Friedrich transferred to Wolfsburg for €2 million. His emergence as a center back made him a versatile asset on the international stage and Low took him to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He started every match in his converted position as Germany finished third again, with Arne scoring his first goal for his country in the quarter-final against Argentina.

Achievements

Friedrich’s only honours are the DFB-Ligapokal in 2002 and the Intertoto Cup in 2006 both won whilst with Hertha Berlin.