Timo Hildebrand

Timo Hildebrand (born April 5, 1979 in Worms, Germany, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) is a goalkeeper, who currently plays for the Spanish club Valencia CF in La Liga, and the German national football team.

He has a reputation for impressive reflexes and substantial ability in one-on-one situations. Hildebrand holds a Bundesliga (football) record for keeping a clean sheet for 884 consecutive minutes in 2003/2004.

Club career

VfB Stuttgart

After starting his career at the little known FV Hofheim/Ried, Hildebrand joined the VfB Stuttgart youth team in 1994.

Since summer 2000, he is the number one goalkeeper and contributed largely to Stuttgart's successes, particularly as part of what became known as "Stuttgart's young wild ones" team under coach Felix Magath who, due to financial restraints, had to rely on young players.
Largely thanks to Hildebrand's steady performances, VfB Stuttgart managed to be Bundesliga (football) runners-up in 2003 and survived the UEFA Champions League group stage the following season, before bowing out to Chelsea FC in the second round.

In December 2006 he didn't accept the offer of VfB Stuttgart to extend his contract. The club signed Raphael Schäfer of Bundesliga rivals 1. FC Nürnberg as a replacement for Hildebrand from next season (2007/08).

Valencia

Hildebrand joined the Spanish club Valencia CF on a free transfer on July 3, 2007, with Valencia unveiling Hildebrand via a news conference the next day on July 4, 2007. He stated in the news conference that he would "give everything" to the club.

He made his debut for Valencia on August 29, for the third qualification round second leg
of UEFA Champions League against IF Elfsborg. He played the full 90 minutes of that game.

International career

After making his debut for the German squad on 28 April 2004 in a friendly against Romania in Bucharest (which Germany lost 1-5), Hildebrand played his first match in an international tournament for Germany national football team at the Confederations Cup 2005 against Argentina national football team. As of now, Hildebrand has collected a total of 5 international caps, as well as 15 Germany national under-21 football team-caps.

He is considered one of Germany's rising stars and this is evident from the fact that he was selected as Germany national football team's third-choice goalkeeper for the Euro 2004 in Portugal, the Confederations Cup 2005 in Germany, as well as for the Football World Cup 2006. With Oliver Kahn having retired from the national team, Hildebrand has stepped up to become Germany's number two goalkeeper behind Arsenal F.C.'s Jens Lehmann.

Honours

- 2006 FIFA World Cup Bronze medallist: 2006 FIFA World Cup
- Confederations Cup Bronze medallist: 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup
- Fußball-Bundesliga 2006/07 German Bundesliga (football)
- DFB Pokal Runner-Up: 2006/07