Florian Grillitsch

Florian Grillitsch
Grillitsch with Austria in 2018
Personal information
Date of birth (1995-08-07) 7 August 1995 (age 29)[1]
Place of birth Neunkirchen, Austria[1]
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)[1]
Position(s) Defensive midfielder,[1] centre back
Team information
Current team
 TSG Hoffenheim
Number 11
Youth career
2001–2008 SVSF Pottschach[2]
2008–2013 St. Pölten[2]
2013–2014 Werder Bremen
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2013–2015 Werder Bremen II 36 (10)
2015–2017 Werder Bremen 48 (3)
2017–2022 TSG Hoffenheim 130 (3)
2022–2023 Ajax 10 (0)
2023– TSG Hoffenheim 36 (1)
International career‡
2013–2014 Austria U19 8 (7)
2015 Austria U20 5 (2)
2014–2017 Austria U21 6 (3)
2017– Austria 49 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 17:26, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 23:14, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Florian Grillitsch (born 7 August 1995) is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder or centre back for Bundesliga club TSG Hoffenheim and the Austria national team.

Club career

Early career

Born in Neunkirchen, Austria on 7 August 1995,[1] Grillitsch played for SVSF Pottschach and St. Pölten in his youth football career.[2]

Werder Bremen

2013–15

Grillitsch joined Werder Bremen on 1 July 2013. He split the 2013–14 season between the Werder Bremen U19's youth team and Werder Bremen II.[1] He made 15 appearances in the A-Junioren-Bundesliga Nord/Nordost scoring 11 goals[2] and made five appearances in the Regionalliga Nord for Werder Bremen II.[2] In the 2014–15 season, Grillitsch made 26 appearances scoring nine goals for Werder's reserve team.[3]

2015–16 season

Grillitsch made his first team debut during the 2015–16 season.[4] He played the full 120 minutes including extra-time in the 2–0 win against Würzburger Kickers in the first round of the DFB-Pokal on 8 August 2015, notably assisting Anthony Ujah for 1–0.[5] His first Bundesliga match was a 3–0 loss to Schalke 04 on matchday one on 15 August 2015. He replaced the veteran Clemens Fritz after 70 minutes at 2–0.[6] He also played for Werder Bremen II during the 2015–16 season.[4] Grillitsch achieved his first assist in the Bundesliga as Werder beat Mainz 3–1 on 24 October 2015 setting up Fin Bartels for the third goal. He played the full 90 minutes.[7] Four days later, Grillitsch prominently featured in Werder's 1–0 second-round DFB-Pokal victory over 1. FC Köln, providing a major goal-scoring chance for Ujah, playing multiple through-balls and almost scoring.[8][9][10] Afterwards, he was voted "Man of the match" by the club's fans.[11]

2016–17 season

On 18 March 2017, Grillitsch scored his second goal of the 2016–17 season in a 3–0 win against Leipzig, a match that saw all three of Werder Bremen's Austrian players score in the club's highest win of the season.[12][13]

1899 Hoffenheim

Grillitsch with Hoffenheim in May 2019

On 16 January 2017, Grillitsch signed a contract with 1899 Hoffenheim until 2021, starting from the 2017–18 season.[14]

He made his debut for the club in the league match against Bayer 04 Leverkusen (1–1 draw) on August 26, 2017. Grillitsch scored his first goal for 1899 Hoffenheim on November 2 that year in the UEFA Europa League against Istanbul Başakşehir. However, Hoffenheim finished last in the group behind Istanbul Başakşehir, SC Braga and PFK Ludogorets.

Things went better in the Bundesliga, with a fourth-place finish in 2017-18, and a group stage spot in the UEFA Champions League. The following seasons, Grillitsch finished eighth, seventh, eleventh and eighth again with Hoffenheim, in his five seasons at the club, where he clocked up 151 appearances with eight goals and eleven assists.

Grillitsch was a starter in the vast majority of those matches. But in the summer of 2022, Grillitsch let his contract expire with the club.

Ajax and Hoffenheim again

After moving to then Dutch champions AFC Ajax in the summer of 2022, returned to Hoffenheim after a year when the Amsterdam giants suffered a poor season with a third-place finish.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 10 November 2024[2][3][4]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club[4] Season[4] League National cup Europe Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Werder Bremen II 2013–14 Regionalliga Nord 5 0 — — — 5 0
2014–15 Regionalliga Nord 26 9 — — — 26 9
2015–16 3. Liga 5 1 — — — 5 1
Total 36 10 — — — 36 10
Werder Bremen 2015–16 Bundesliga 25 1 5 1 — — 30 2
2016–17 Bundesliga 23 2 1 0 — — 24 2
Total 48 3 6 1 — — 54 4
TSG Hoffenheim 2017–18 Bundesliga 25 1 1 0 3[a] 1 — 29 2
2018–19 Bundesliga 30 0 0 0 6[b] 1 — 36 1
2019–20 Bundesliga 31 0 3 1 — — 34 1
2020–21 Bundesliga 26 2 1 0 7[a] 2 — 34 4
2021–22 Bundesliga 18 0 0 0 — — 18 0
Total 130 3 5 1 16 4 0 0 151 8
Ajax 2022–23 Eredivisie 10 0 3 0 5[b] 0 0 0 18 0
TSG Hoffenheim 2023–24 Bundesliga 29 1 1 0 — — 30 1
2024–25 Bundesliga 7 0 2 0 4[a] 0 — 13 0
Total 36 1 3 0 4 0 — 43 1
Career total 260 17 17 2 25 4 0 0 302 23
  1. ^ a b c Appearances in UEFA Europa League
  2. ^ a b Appearances in UEFA Champions League

International

As of match played 17 November 2024[15]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Austria 2017 6 0
2018 7 1
2019 3 0
2020 3 0
2021 14 0
2022 2 0
2023 5 0
2024 9 0
Total 49 1
As of match played 27 March 2018
Scores and results list Austria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Grillitsch goal.[15]
List of international goals scored by Florian Grillitsch
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 27 March 2018 Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg  Luxembourg 2–0 4–0 Friendly

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Florian Grillitsch". World Football. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Florian Grillitsch". Kicker (in German). kicker. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Florian Grillitsch". Kicker (in German). kicker. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Florian Grillitsch » Club matches". World Football. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  5. ^ "Werder zieht den Kopf aus der Schlinge - dank Ujah und Bartels". kicker (in German). 8 August 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  6. ^ "Choupo-Moting und Huntelaar eiskalt - Schalke siegt". kicker (in German). 15 August 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  7. ^ "Bremen end losing streak with stunning six-minute spell". Bundesliga. 24 October 2015. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  8. ^ Dorow, Olaf; Waterkamp, Thorsten (28 October 2015). "Werder feiert Ujah" [Werder celebrates Ujah] (in German). Weser Kurier. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  9. ^ "Die Noten: Starker Wiedwald, mutiger Grillitsch" [Grades: strong Wiedwald, courageous Grilltisch] (in German). Kreiszeitung Syke. 28 October 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  10. ^ "Werder in Noten" [Werder grades] (in German). Weser Kurier. 28 October 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  11. ^ "Grillitsch spielt sich in den Vordergrund" (in German). Radio Bremen. Archived from the original on 2 November 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  12. ^ Knips, Björn (18 March 2017). "Der Ösi-Tag: Werder feiert Kaiserschmarrn-Sieg". Kreiszeitung (in German). Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  13. ^ "Werder Bremen - RB Leipzig 3:0, 1. Bundesliga, Saison 2016/17, 25.Spieltag - Spielbericht". kicker Online (in German). 18 March 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  14. ^ "Wechsel im Sommer: Grillitsch wird Hoffenheimer" (in German). kicker. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  15. ^ a b "Grillitsch, Florian". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Florian Grillitsch.