Quick Facts
Biography
Thomas Strunz (born 25 April 1968) is a German retired footballer who played mostly as a defensive midfielder.
Over the course of 12 seasons, he amassed Bundesliga totals of 235 games and 32 goals, representing in the competition Bayern Munich and Stuttgart. He won 12 major titles with the first club.
Strunz gained 41 caps for Germany, during nine years. He was part of the squad that won Euro 1996.
Club career
Born in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Strunz started his career playing for hometown club MSV Duisburg, but moved to FC Bayern Munich aged 21. He made his Bundesliga debut on 31 August 1989 in a 4–0 home win against Hamburger SV, and proceeded to score five goals in 20 matches in his first season.
Strunz joined VfB Stuttgart for 1992–93, netting five times in his debut campaign before returning to Bayern after three years. In his two spells with the Bavarian side he won five championship medals and two German cups, adding the 1995–96 UEFA Cup in which he scored two goals in nine games. In his final two seasons he played rarely due to recurrent injuries, and retired in late 2000 as his team went on to win back-to-back league titles.
After retiring, Strunz served as general manager at VfL Wolfsburg for nearly a year, being fired on 19 December 2005 – head coach Holger Fach was sacked on the same day, and the former was awarded €2.750.000 in compensation. In April 2008 he enrolled in the same capacity at lowly Rot-Weiss Essen, being fired on 12 September of the following year.
International career
Strunz made his debut for Germany on 10 October 1990, in a 3–1 friendly win in Sweden. He went on to represent the nation at the 1994 FIFA World Cup and the victorious UEFA Euro 1996.
During the latter competition, Strunz appeared in five of six matches (being sent off against Italy and subsequently suspended for the quarter-final), converting his penalty shootout attempt in the semi-finals and playing the entire final against the Czech Republic.
International goal
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 7 June 1995 | Vasil Levski, Sofia, Bulgaria |  Bulgaria | 2–0 | 2–3 | Euro 1996 qualifying |
Post-retirement
After retiring, Strunz worked as football pundit for German TV channel Sport1.
Personal life
- Strunz's wife, Claudia, left him for fellow German international Stefan Effenberg.
- On 10 March 1998, he was one of the main targets in a furious press conference held by Bayern manager Giovanni Trapattoni, who addressed the media in broken German. The Italian press was amused by his surname pronounced repeatedly and with great vigor by the coach, since in Neapolitan dialect "strunz" is a swear word literally meaning "turd", but roughly equivalent to "asshole".
Honours
Club
- Bundesliga: 1989–90, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01
- UEFA Cup: 1995–96
- DFB-Pokal: 1997–98, 1999–2000; Runner-up 1998–99
- DFB-Ligapokal: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
- UEFA Champions League: Runner-up 1998–99
International
- UEFA European Championship: 1996
- U.S. Cup: 1993