Club Career
From 2002 to 2007, he progressed through the youth setup at Bayern Munich. He played for Bayern's reserve team before signing professional terms in July 2009, along with team-mate Thomas Müller, having been an unused substitute in a number of first-team matches in the 2008–09 season. He made his debut in the first league game of the 2009–10 season, against Hoffenheim and has been a regular in defence. He scored his first senior goal, a powerful free kick, against Borussia Mönchengladbach on 4 December 2009. A centre back by trade, he has been playing out of position at left back. The youngster impressed in his first season, and started all league games save one in the 2009–10 Bundesliga season.
On 4 February 2010, Bayern Munich announced that Badstuber had signed a new contract that would keep him at the club until 2014.
Throughout the 2010–11 season with Bayern, Badstuber endured a tumultuous relationship with coach Louis van Gaal, who despite stating that he has high trust in Badstuber, strongly criticized him following a number of poor performances. As a result of his poor form he found himself out of the starting eleven several times throughout the season. With the arrival of Jupp Heynckes however, he was reinstated at the left of central defense, where he has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with fellow international Jerome Boateng, and helped Bayern maintain 11 clean sheets in a row. Additionally, he was integral to the Bayern Munich defensive line which lead the team to the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final, beating Real Madrid, Napoli and Manchester City along the way, before losing out to English side Chelsea in the final.
Read more about this topic: Holger Badstuber
Famous quotes containing the words club and/or career:
“Of course we women gossip on occasion. But our appetite for it is not as avid as a man’s. It is in the boys’ gyms, the college fraternity houses, the club locker rooms, the paneled offices of business that gossip reaches its luxuriant flower.”
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–1978)
“John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)