Steffen Hofmann

I'm wondering what you think of this:

http://www.kurier.at/sport/818898.php

I guess I'm posting this here because a lot more people frequent this forum than the Austria/Switzerland boards. The gist of it is, Steffen Hofmann was brought to Rapid from the Bayern amateurs a couple of years ago by Matthäus. His career took off here and he was just named player of the year in Austria. He married an Austrian woman and there was talk of his taking Austrian citizenship and playing for Austria, but his recent form has earned him a look from Klinsmann and Löw.

If I'm Hofmann and I'm using logic as the deciding factor, I choose Austria. He is almost guaranteed to be a fixture in the national team and to participate in at least one big tournament (Euro 2008). Whereas if he chooses Germany he will have a damn hard time cracking the lineup on any kind of regular basis. But I can appreciate that Germany may be where his heart is, and he grew up dreaming of playing for the German national team.

Further complicating matters is that he will almost definitely be leaving Rapid at the end of the season, most likely for the German BL. So even if he were to choose Austria, he would be flying in from somewhere in Germany to play for them, which is kind of a mercenary situation.

If I had to guess, I would say he will choose Germany, get a game or maybe two with the national team and that will be it for his international career. Obviously if the German national team coach is intersted in you, that gives you pause. But they are not really guaranteeing him anything other than a tryout, and even that is making him think long and hard.

 

Excellent question! What happened to that guy?

More on Hofmann:

http://www.kurier.at/sport/818874.php

http://www.kurier.at/sport/818880.php

http://www.kurier.at/sport/818871.php

http://www.kurier.at/sport/819079.php

 

Who was national team coach at that time? I remember Erich Ribbeck being responsible for a lot of people's extremely short national team careers!

 

Ummmm......... I'm stumped!

Sebescen had some good games for Wolfsburg and Leverkusen. I mean, I'm not expert on who's national team material and who isn't, but I thought he earned himself a look with some good performances.

 

So Sebescen only has one cap? I could have sworn he had played with the national team more than once. Maybe after that article was published?

Plus that article seems to imply that he was forced to play in a position he wasn't used to. And if I remember correctly, he had some very big games for Wolfsburg before getting called up, so it wasn't completely out of the blue. Still though, seven games isn't much, so maybe he would have been better off if he'd gotten his first crack at the national team after a little more BL experience.

 

I dunno, his German was pretty damned good if I remember correctly. I'd certainly consider him to be more German than Oliver Neuville. If he grew up in Germany, then I think it's fair to say he's a German player, as that's where he learned and developed as a player.

Of course, if he had the opportunity to play for Hungary (which he probably did) you could call him stupid for not taking it and being assured of a long international career.