Christian Günter
Günter with SC Freiburg in 2019
Personal information
Full name Christian Günter[1]
Date of birth (1993-02-28) 28 February 1993[2]
Place of birth Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany
Height 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)[2]
Position(s) Left-back
Team information
Current team
 SC Freiburg
Number 30
Youth career
1997–2006 FV Tennenbronn
2006–2012 SC Freiburg
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2012–2014 SC Freiburg II 13 (0)
2012– SC Freiburg 335 (10)
International career‡
2013–2014 Germany U20 5 (0)
2014–2015 Germany U21 9 (0)
2014– Germany 8 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 19:33, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 20:39, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Christian Günter (born 28 February 1993) is a German professional footballer who plays as a left-back for and captains Bundesliga club SC Freiburg. He also plays for the Germany national team.[3]

On 19 May 2021, Günter was selected for the German squad for UEFA Euro 2020.[4]

Personal information

Günter originally comes from Tennenbronn, a district of the city of Schramberg. He was born in Villingen-Schwenningen, a neighbouring city. As a youth player for SC Freiburg, he commuted between the places Tennenbronn and Freiburg. He currently lives in Littenweiler, a district of Freiburg. Günter is married and has a daughter (* 2020). After graduating from secondary school, he completed instruction and schooling as an industrial mechanic in St. Georgen.[5]

Career

As a youth player

At the age of four, Günter joined the football club FV Tennenbronn. As a 13-year-old, he was invited to trial training by SC Freiburg. From then on he went through the club's youth teams. In 2012, he won an important title as captain of the A-Juniors team, the DFB-Pokal der Junioren (youth DFB-Pokal).[6]

Beginnings in professional football

His professional career began in the 2012–13 season when he was included in the club´s professional squad. He became the new replacement for left-back Oliver Sorg at SC Freiburg. Günter was in the professional team's squad for the first time on 17 November 2012. A few weeks later, he finally made his debut for the first team on 8th December in a 1-0 win against SpVgg Greuther Fürth. As a substitute, he replaced Vegar Eggen Hedenstad in the 77th minute of the game. He played his second game again as a substitute, which was in the DFB-Pokal on 18 December against Karlsruher SC. In total he played eight competitive games in his first season.

The next season, SC Freiburg played in the Europa League. In the 2013–14 season, Günter made his first appearance in the DFB-Pokal against TSG Neustrelitz. In the following months, he was used more often by coach Christian Streich, as the two full-backs Hedenstad and Mensur Mujdža were temporarily unavailable. On 19 September 2013, he made his debut in international competition against FC Slovan Liberec. However, the team was eliminated after the group phase of the Europa League. In March 2014, he extended his contract at SC Freiburg early.[7]

Regular player at SC Freiburg

On the 11th matchday of the 2014–15 season which took place on 8 November 2014, he scored his first goal in the Bundesliga. He scored in the 22nd minute of a 2-0 win against FC Schalke. At the end of that season, in which Günter played in every Bundesliga game of SC Freiburg, the sports club was relegated to the second division. However, in the following season, SC Freiburg became second division champions. By that, the team was immediately promoted back to the first league. Since then he has continued to be a regular player in the left-back position the following season. In the 2016–17 season, he and his team SC Freiburg finished seventh in the Bundesliga. Therefore, the club was eligible to take part in the qualifying round for the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League. However, the club was eliminated from the tournament. After a 1–0 first leg win and a 0–2 second leg defeat, the club was eliminated in the third qualifying round against the Slovenian first division team NK Domžale.[8]

After only missing two matches in the following three Bundesliga seasons, Günter was elected team captain of the club in 2020.[9] In addition, Günter also decided to wear a captain's armband in rainbow colors in order to set an example for more tolerance and against exclusion. In March 2021, he made a further contract extension at the club for an unknown term.[10]

Günter became his club's Bundesliga record player on matchday 2 of the 2021–22 season with his 237th appearance. Thereby, he broke Andreas Zeyer's previous record.[11]

National team

Günter made his debut for the DFB U-20 national team on 12 October 2013. It was a 4–0 win against the Netherlands in which he was in the starting line-up and was later replaced by Tim Leibold from Stuttgart.[12]

Later on, Günter was nominated for the first time for two European Championship qualifiers in September 2014 by U-21 national coach Horst Hrubesch. He made his full 90-minute debut for the German U-21 national team on 5 September 2014 in a 2–0 win against Ireland. He was involved in three appearances while his team made it to the main round.

He made his international debut with the senior national team on 13 May 2014. It was an international friendly match against Poland, in which he came on as a substitute in the 81st minute for Oliver Sorg.

In July 2016, Günter was nominated for the German squad for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[13]

Then, in May 2021, Günter was named to the squad for the Euros 2021 by national coach Joachim Löw.[14] Moreover, he made his second international appearance for the senior national team in the friendly against Denmark on 2 June 2021. With his team, he reached the round of 16 at the tournament, in which Germany lost against England. Despite expressing disappointment with the team's performance, he declared himself ready and willing to play for the national team again in the future.[15]

In November 2022, he was named to the Germany squad for the 2022 World Cup by coach Hansi Flick.[16]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 13 August 2023[3][17]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League DFB-Pokal Europe Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
SC Freiburg II 2012–13 Regionalliga Südwest 100——100
2013–14 30——30
Total 130——130
SC Freiburg 2012–13 Bundesliga 7010—80
2013–14 290305[lower-alpha 1]0370
2014–15 34130—371
2015–16 2. Bundesliga 31020—330
2016–17 Bundesliga 31020—330
2017–18 341302[lower-alpha 1]0391
2018–19 32020—340
2019–20 34220—362
2020–21 34320—363
2021–22 34260—402
2022–23 331508[lower-alpha 1]0461
2023–24 00110011
Total 3331032115038011
Career total 3461032115039311

International

As of match played 28 November 2023[18]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National teamYearAppsGoals
Germany 201410
202130
202230
202310
Total80

Honours

Individual

References

  1. ↑ "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 – Squad list: Germany (GER)" (PDF). FIFA. 15 November 2022. p. 13. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Christian Günter | Playerprofile". Bundesliga. DFL. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  3. 1 2 Christian Günter at Soccerway. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
  4. ↑ "EM-Kader offiziell: Löw beruft Müller, Hummels und Volland". kicker.de (in German). 19 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  5. ↑ "Christian Günter: Alle Infos zum deutschen Fußballprofi – Karriere, Stationen, Länderspiele". tz (in German). 19 November 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  6. ↑ "U-19-Kapitän Christian Günter: „Natürlich hat man das Ziel, Profi zu werden"". Badische Zeitung (in German). 11 May 2012. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  7. ↑ "SC Freiburg verlängert Vertrag mit Verteidiger Günter". Sueddeutsche Zeitung (in German). 13 March 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  8. ↑ "2:0 - Domzale wirft Freiburg raus!". kicker.de (in German). 3 August 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  9. ↑ "Christian Günter ist neuer Kapitän". SC Freiburg (in German). 28 June 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  10. ↑ "SC-Kapitän Christian Günter verlängert Vertrag". baden.fm (in German). 18 March 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  11. ↑ "237 Bundesliga-Einsätze: Christian Günter nun Freiburgs Rekordspieler". spox.com (in German). 21 August 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  12. ↑ "U 20 Länderspiel, 2013/2014, Saison". dfb.de (in German). Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  13. ↑ "Die Olympia-Kader stehen fest". dfb.de (in German). 15 July 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  14. ↑ "EM-Kader offiziell: Löw beruft Müller, Hummels und Volland". kicker.de (in German). 19 May 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  15. ↑ "Günter: "Mit der einen oder anderen Umstellung wäre mehr möglich gewesen"". kicker.de (in German). 19 July 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  16. ↑ Noronha, Anselm (27 November 2022). "Germany World Cup 2022 squad: Who's in and who's out?". goal.com. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  17. ↑ "Christian Günter". SofaScore. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  18. ↑ Christian Günter at DFB (also available in German)
  19. ↑ "Bundesliga Fantasy Manager Team of the Season 2019/20". Bundesliga. 28 August 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  20. ↑ "Sechs Klubs vertreten: Die kicker-Elf der Saison 2021/22". kicker.de (in German). 26 May 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
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