About this sound Bastian Schweinsteiger (help·info) (born 1 August 1984 in Kolbermoor) is a German footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bayern Munich and Germany. A right-footed player, he usually plays as a left winger but can also play on the right and is especially dangerous when outside the penalty box, where he will assist the strikers with pin-point crosses or have an effort at goal, but recently he has been put in a central midfield role under Louis Van Gaal. At only 25 years old, he is one of the longest-serving players at Bayern, having been at the club since he was a teenager. Career Club career Schweinsteiger signed for Bayern Munich as a youth team player on 1 July 1998 and rose through the club's youth sides. A talented youth ski racer, he had to decide between pursuing a professional career in skiing or football at the age of 14. Having won the German youth championship in July 2002, Schweinsteiger quickly earned a place in the reserves, producing a string of solid third division displays. He initially earned a reputation for being a rebel off the pitch making headlines for the wrong reasons but has since settled down .[2] A left midfielder, who can also play on the right, he has a hard shot, great dribbling skills and is a specialist at set pieces. He can also play as a defensive midfielder or just behind the strikers. After just two training sessions with the first team, coach Ottmar Hitzfeld gave Schweinsteiger his debut as a late substitute in a UEFA Champions League game against RC Lens in November 2002, and the youngster made an immediate impact, creating a goal for Markus Feulner within minutes. He signed a professional contract the following month and went on to appear in 14 Bundesliga games in 2002–03, helping Bayern to a league and cup double. The next season he played 26 Bundesliga games. He scored his first Bayern goal against VfL Wolfsburg in September 2003. Surprisingly sent back to Bayern's reserve team by new coach Felix Magath at the beginning of the 2004–05 season despite his international exploits of the summer in the Confederations Cup, Schweinsteiger swiftly returned to play a role in the double-winning campaign and scored in Bayern's Champions League quarter-final first-leg defeat at Chelsea. Over the next three seasons, up until the end of 2007–08, Bastian made 135 appearances in all competitions for Bayern Munich (UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup), scoring 10 goals in the process. On 15 August 2008, Schweinsteiger scored the first Bundesliga goal of the 2008–09 season. He had intended to extend his contract after the previous season but failed to agree to terms.[3] In the end, he extended his contract at Bayern until 2012 on 18 November 2008. International career Schweinsteiger made his international debut in 2004 in a friendly against Hungary. Right after taking part in the U-21's disappointing run at the 2004 European Championships, he was called-up for the Euro 2004. Bayern's number 31 earned rave reviews for his performances in Portugal, showing combative skills and even setting up the opening goal for former Bayern teammate Michael Ballack in Germany's 2-1 loss against the Czech Republic. He scored his first two international goals on 8 June 2005 against Russia and scored his first goal at a major tournament against Tunisia on June 18, 2005 at the Confederations Cup in Germany.[4] He was called-up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup on home soil and shot into prominence at the tournament with his two brilliant long-range strikes in the third place match against Portugal, which won him the Man of the Match award.[5] The match ended 3-1 with the twenty two-year-old nearly claiming a hat-trick but his deflected free kick was credited as an own-goal to Armando Petit. During Euro 2008 qualifiers, he scored two goals en route to a record 13-0 win over San Marino in San Marino. He scored the third goal in Germany's 4-1 win over Slovakia in Bratislava. At the age of 22, he had already played 41 matches for the German national team, a record for any German player at the time. This record was soon broken, however, by Lukas Podolski who was capped 44 times at the age of 22. At the same age, Lothar Matthäus (the German all-time record holder with 150 caps) had only played 13 times for the German national team. To this day Germany have never lost a game when he has scored. Schweinsteiger initially lost his place in the starting eleven when manager Joachim Löw moved striker Lukas Podolski to his usual position on the left wing to accommodate the strike partnership of Miroslav Klose and Mario Gómez and he made two substitute appearances in the group stages. In the second match against Croatia, he was shown a straight red card for reacting to a challenge from Jerko Leko as Germany succumbed to a shock 2-1 defeat. After serving his suspension by missing the game against Austria, he returned to the starting line-up in the quarterfinal against Portugal when Löw reverted back to the old 4-4-2 formation when Gómez was benched after failing to make an impression. Once again he was instrumental in their 3-2 win, scoring one and setting up Miroslav Klose's equaliser and Michael Ballack's winner. He also scored his country's first goal in the 3-2 semi-final victory against Turkey. He captained the team for the first time in a friendly against the United Arab Emirates. Schweinsteiger was again ever-present in 2010 World Cup qualifying, playing 9 of the 10 games and contributing 3 goals.