Anton Stach

Anton Stach
Personal information
Full name Anton Levi Stach[1]
Date of birth (1998-11-15) 15 November 1998 (age 26)
Place of birth Buchholz in der Nordheide, Germany
Height 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Team information
Current team
TSG Hoffenheim
Number 16
Youth career
0000–2011 Buchholzer FC
2011–2015 Werder Bremen
2015–2016 JFV Nordwest
2016–2017 VfL Osnabrück
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2017 VfL Osnabrück II 1 (0)
2017–2018 SSV Jeddeloh 23 (4)
2018–2020 VfL Wolfsburg II 40 (6)
2020–2021 Greuther Fürth 30 (1)
2021–2023 Mainz 05 61 (2)
2023– TSG Hoffenheim 47 (2)
International career
2021 Germany U21 5 (0)
2021 Germany Olympic 3 (0)
2022– Germany 2 (0)
Medal record
UEFA European Under-21 Championship
Gold medal – first place 2021
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 19:24, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 21:12, 14 June 2022

Anton Levi Stach (born 15 November 1998) is a German professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bundesliga club TSG Hoffenheim and the Germany national team.[2][3]

Club career

Stach was born in the Lower Saxonian town of Buchholz in der Nordheide at the Hamburg Metropolitan Region and joined Buchholzer FC during his childhood. Since 2010, he has participated to the training at Werder Bremen once a week,[4] before he joined one year later the youth academy (Nachwuchsleistungszentrum) of Bremen-based. Stach has played for Werder Bremen until the B-youth and has played later at JFV Nordwest.[5] Afterwards, he joined the U19-team of VfL Osnabrück.

For the 2017–18 season, the Buchholz-born Stach joined SSV Jeddeloh from Regionalliga Nord, the fourth-highest level in Germany.[5] After a one year, he moved to VfL Wolfsburg II, also in the Regionalliga Nord. With the second team of VfL Wolfsburg II, he has reached the play-off round for the promotion to the professional 3. Liga, the third-highest level of German football, but the Lower Saxonians lost against Bayern Munich II.

In the 2020–21 season, Stach left Lower Saxony and joined Franconia-based Greuther Fürth from the second German division, where he signed a contract until summer 2023.[6] Stach helped the team achieve promotion to the Bundesliga. In July 2021, he joined Mainz 05 on a deal until summer 2024.[7] Later that year, on 4 December, he scored his first Bundesliga goal in a 3–0 victory over VfL Wolfsburg.[8]

On 1 September 2023, Stach signed a four-year contract with TSG Hoffenheim.[9] Two months later, on 4 November, he scored his first goal for Hoffenheim in a 3–2 home defeat against Bayer Leverkusen.[10] He finished the 2023–24 season as the player with second most duels won in 408 occasions, ony behind Bernardo.[11]

International career

In March 2021, Stach was called up for the Germany national under-21 football team for the group stage of the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. The matches were broadcast live in Germany at ProSieben and ProSieben MAXX and his father Matthias Stach was the commentator during the group stage. The player was substituted in the second match against the Netherlands and his father has said "Blamier' mich nicht, Junge!" (in English "Don't embarrass me, boy!" or "Don't embarrass me, son!").[12] Germany advanced past the group stage as Stach made two appearances. In July 2021, he was also a part of the German squad for the knockout stage of the tournament, playing in all three matches as Germany reached the final, where they won 1–0 against Portugal.

Stach was called up to the senior Germany squad for friendly matches against Israel and the Netherlands on 26 and 29 March 2022, respectively.[13] Stach was substituted in the 2–0 win against Israel in Sinsheim in the 64th minute for Julian Weigl.[14]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 15 December 2024
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup Europe Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
VfL Osnabrück II 2016–17 Oberliga Niedersachsen 1 0 1 0
SSV Jeddeloh 2017–18 Regionalliga Nord 23 4 4 0 27 4
VfL Wolfsburg II 2018–19 Regionalliga Nord 20 4 20 4
2019–20 Regionalliga Nord 20 2 20 2
Total 40 6 40 6
Greuther Fürth 2020–21 2. Bundesliga 30 1 3 0 33 1
Mainz 05 2021–22 Bundesliga 29 1 3 0 32 1
2022–23 Bundesliga 30 1 3 0 33 1
2023–24 Bundesliga 2 0 1 0 3 0
Total 61 2 7 0 68 2
1899 Hoffenheim 2023–24 Bundesliga 33 2 2 0 35 2
2024–25 Bundesliga 14 0 3 0 5[a] 0 22 0
Total 47 2 5 0 5 0 57 2
Career total 202 15 19 0 5 0 0 0 226 15
  1. ^ Appearances in UEFA Europa League

International

As of match played 14 June 2022
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Germany 2022 2 0
Total 2 0

Personal life

Anton's father, Matthias Stach, is a sports commentator in Germany.[15] Anton’s sisters, Emma and Lotta, play basketball.[16]

References

  1. ^ "Squad List: Men's Olympic Football Tournament Tokyo 2020: Germany (GER)" (PDF). FIFA. 22 July 2021. p. 7. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  2. ^ Anton Stach at WorldFootball.net Edit this at Wikidata
  3. ^ Patten, Volkhard (4 May 2020). "Anton Stach macht den Schritt in den Profifußball" [Anton Stach takes the step into professional football]. Nordwest-Zeitung (in German). Fürth. Archived from the original on 29 July 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  4. ^ "Anton Stach – erster Buchholzer Landesmeister im Tennis". Stadt Buchholz in der Nordheide (in German). Stadt Buchholz in der Nordheide. 21 May 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Anton Stach macht den Schritt in den Profifußbal" (in German). Retrieved 26 March 2022.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ "Kleeblatt verpflichtet Stach". SpVgg Greuther Fürth (in German). SpVgg Greuther Fürth GmbH & Co. KGaA. 4 May 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  7. ^ "FSV VERPFLICHTET U21-EUROPAMEISTER STACH". 1. FSV Mainz 05 (in German). 1. Fußball- und Sportverein Mainz 05 e. V. 31 July 2021. Archived from the original on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  8. ^ "FSV Mainz 05 - VfL Wolfsburg 3:0" (in German). ZDF. 6 December 2021.
  9. ^ "Anton Stach wechselt zur TSG" (in German). TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. 1 September 2023.
  10. ^ "Leverkusen nach Sieg bei 1899 weiter vorne" (in German). ZDF. 6 November 2023.
  11. ^ "Bundesliga Stats 2023-2024". Bundesliga. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  12. ^ las (28 March 2021). "Matthias Stach kommentiert Einwechslung des eigenen Sohns". Kicker-Sportmagazin (in German). Olympia Verlag GmbH. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  13. ^ "Flick nominiert Kader für zwei Länderspiele" [Flick names squad for two friendly matches] (in German). German Football Association. 18 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  14. ^ "Havertz und Werner treffen nach Standards: DFB-Elf gewinnt gegen Israel". Kicker-Sportmagazin (in German). Olympia Verlag GmbH. 26 March 2022. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  15. ^ "TV-Premiere bei der U21-EM: Vater Matthias Stach als Kommentator, Sohn Anton im DFB-Aufgebot" (in German). 24 March 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  16. ^ Sander, Oliver (8 August 2017). "Sportliche Geschwister. Basketball und Fußball: Emma (20), Anton (18) und Lotta (15) Stach stehen national im Fokus" (in German). Retrieved 26 March 2022.