Timo Hildebrand: At the top. At the bottom.
Timo Hildebrand was German champion with VfB Stuttgart, won the Copa del Rey with Valencia FC and won World Cup bronze on home soil. Yet there were moments during his professional career when he was on the verge of retirement.
Timo Hildebrand Lecture Topics
- Victory & defeat: The fine line between superhero & loser
- Timo Hildebrand: Overtime – The Life after the Career
- At the top. All the way down. – Of victory, defeat, championship, relegation and getting back up again.
- TeamWork & Motivation
- The green lifestyle: healthy and vegan nutrition
Timo Hildebrand was born in Worms and grew up in Hofheim im Ried in Hesse. He started playing soccer at the local FV Hofheim/Ried. At the age of 15, he received his first offers from professional soccer clubs, including Cologne, Darmstadt and Mannheim. He chose VfB Stuttgart and was with the club between 1994 and 2007, playing in the men’s side, first in the Swabians’ reserve team and then, from 1999/00, in the Bundesliga team. With VFB Stuttgart, Timo Hildebrand was runner-up in the 2002/03 season and thus achieved direct qualification for the Champions League. Over the two seasons 2002/03 and 2003/04, Timo Hildebrand went 884 Bundesliga minutes without conceding a goal, breaking Oliver Kahn’s Bundesliga record. Hildebrand’s mark has not been surpassed since.
On December 19, 2006, VfB Stuttgart withdrew an offer to extend Hildebrand’s contract, which expired in June 2007, after he had been unwilling to make a decision at that time. In this last season at VfB Stuttgart, Timo Hildebrand won the German championship as vice-captain in the 2006/07 season and reached the final of the DFB Cup.
In the other stages of his football career, Timo Hildebrand played for FC Valencia, TSG Hoffenheim, Sporting Lisbon, FC Schalke 04 and Eintracht Frankfurt. After the engagement at Eintracht Frankfurt, Hildebrand officially ended his career in professional football in March 2016.
World Cup 2006 – The Summer Story
Timo Hildebrand’s dream of playing for the German national team came true in May 2002. In the run-up to the 2002 World Cup, national coach Rudi Völler nominated Hildebrand for the German national team for the first time in order to gain initial experience in the national team. He made his debut for the national team on April 28, 2004 in Bucharest against Romania.
Timo Hildebrand participated with the national team in the 2004 European Championship in Portugal. The highlight of his career with the national team was his participation in the summer fairy tale, the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
A life after sport.
Timo Hildebrand has a son (* 2012). He wrote the book Noja for him in 2014. Hildebrand has been a shareholder and brand ambassador of the vegan supermarket chain Veganz since March 2014. Since 2015, he lives, according to his own statement, “predominantly vegan”. Since 2016, he has been involved with the Vegetarierbund Deutschland. In March 2016, he enrolled in the trainer course and let it be known that he would like to gain a foothold in the marketing and sponsorship sector in the future.
In 2020, he founded the vegan restaurant “Vhy!” with two comrades-in-arms, which will open its doors in Stuttgart after the lockdown. He is also co-owner of “YEZ.Yoga”, which designs and organizes yoga events for companies, event locations and in festival format.
Timo Hildebrand is socially engaged. He is on the extended board of the Stuttgart-based aid organization Stelp e.V.