Patrick Helmes
Encyclopedia
Patrick Helmes is a German
football striker
who plays for VfL Wolfsburg
. Until September 2007 he was captain of 1. FC Köln
.
and Siegen
. He joined 1. FC Köln in 1997, at the age of 13. However, he was regarded as too unstable and sent away in 2000. He subsequently went back to Sportfreunde Siegen
, where he had already spent some time as a youth player. In the 2004–05 season, he scored 21 goals for his team in the third division, which made him top scorer of the league, helping his team to promotion to the second division.
debut in 2005 and scored his first goal in his second match, against rivals Bayer Leverkusen. After his club was promoted to the second division, Helmes became one of the most important players for his side, scoring seven times in his first five games of the season and keeping Köln at the top of the table. However, he scored the last of those goals with a broken foot. The injury kept him out of the squad for the following four months, during which his team performed extremely poorly and lost all chances to return to the first division.
Patrick did not hide his intention of joining another team. Even though he confirmed that his departure to Bayer Leverkusen would follow the 2007–08 season, Köln coach Christoph Daum
still named him captain of the squad in the summer of 2007. He was later replaced as captain, but nevertheless had a good second half of the season, for which kicker
sportsmagazine named him best striker of Germany's second division, ahead of Oliver Neuville
, Chinedu Obasi and Demba Ba
.
, he scored six goals in the first five games of the season, among them a hat-trick against Hannover 96
. Only months after signing until 2012, his contract was extended and was then valid until 2013. At the end of his first season at Leverkusen, Helmes had scored 21 goals in 34 league games, and three goals in six appearances in the DFB-Pokal where his team reached the final losing to Werder Bremen
. Just about two weeks after the final, a cruciate ligament
in Helmes' right knee tore while Helmes was playing football with friends, and he had to be operated. On 19 December 2010, he scored the second goal of the match to achieve a full time draw against SC Freiburg.
side VfL Wolfsburg
, the champion of 2008-09 for a reported fee of 8 million €. He thereby replaced striker Edin Džeko
, who had moved to Manchester City earlier that month.
Talk of a potential move to Premier League club, Sunderland, emerges prior to the transfer deadline of 31st August 2011.
in a friendly against Denmark
on 28 March 2007, being substituted for Jan Schlaudraff
in 80th minute. He made two more short appearances afterwards, before he was nominated for the starting squad for the first time on 12 September 2007 in a friendly against Romania
held at RheinEnergieStadion
in Cologne, in which he was joined by fellow Cologne local hero Lukas Podolski
. He was included in Löw's 26 man provisional Euro 2008 squad but was eventually left out in favour of Oliver Neuville
.
After the European Championships, he had a few more appearances as a substitute. Helmes scored his first goal for the national team on 19 November 2008 in a 2—1 friendly defeat against England
. He scored his second goal for Germany almost two years later in a friendly against Denmark
after coming on as a substitute.
|-
|2003–04
||rowspan="2"|Sportfreunde Siegen
||rowspan="2"|Regionalliga Süd||17||1||1||0||-||-||18||1
|-
|2004–05
||34||21||0||0||-||-||34||21
|-
|2005–06||rowspan="3"|1. FC Köln
||Bundesliga
||13||4||0||0||-||-||13||4
|-
|2006–07||rowspan="2"|2. Bundesliga
|||19||14||1||0||-||-||20||14
|-
|2007–08||33||17||1||0||-||-||34||17
|-
|2008–09||rowspan="3"|Bayer Leverkusen||rowspan="3"|Bundesliga
||34||21||6||3||-||-||40||24
|-
|2009–10
||12||2||0||0||-||-||12||2
|-
|2010–11
||11||5||2||3||7||4||20||12
|-
|2010–11
||rowspan="2"|VfL Wolfsburg
||rowspan="2"|Bundesliga
||8||1||||||-||-||8||1
|-
|2011–12
||3||2||1||0||0||0||4||2
|-
184||88||12||6||7||4||203||98
|-
|1. || 19 November 2008 || Olympiastadion, Berlin
, Germany
|| || 1–1 || 1–2 || Friendly
|-
|2. || 11 August 2010 || Parken Stadium
, Copenhagen
, Denmark
|| || 2–0 || 2–2 || Friendly
|}
Helmes' nickname is Moppel, a German diminutive
for pug
, often used to describe a chubby kid.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
football striker
Striker
Forwards, also known as strikers, are the players on a team in association football who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, and are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals...
who plays for VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg is a professional German association football club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, who play in the Bundesliga football competition. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, and were DFB-Pokal runners-up in 1995. The current head coach is Felix...
. Until September 2007 he was captain of 1. FC Köln
1. FC Köln
1. FC Köln is a German association football club based in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs Kölner Ballspiel-Club 1901 and SpVgg Sülz 07....
.
Early career
As a youth player, Helmes was active in local clubs in Freudenberg, WestphaliaFreudenberg, Westphalia
Freudenberg is a town in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.The town lies on the German-Dutch holiday road called the Orange Route, joining towns, cities and regions associated with the House of Orange.- Location :...
and Siegen
Siegen
Siegen is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia.It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg region...
. He joined 1. FC Köln in 1997, at the age of 13. However, he was regarded as too unstable and sent away in 2000. He subsequently went back to Sportfreunde Siegen
Sportfreunde Siegen
Sportfreunde Siegen is a German association football club based in Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was founded in 1899 as the football department of the gymnastics club Turn Verein Jahn von 1879 Siegen...
, where he had already spent some time as a youth player. In the 2004–05 season, he scored 21 goals for his team in the third division, which made him top scorer of the league, helping his team to promotion to the second division.
Köln
He then joined his old club Köln again, where he made his BundesligaFußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...
debut in 2005 and scored his first goal in his second match, against rivals Bayer Leverkusen. After his club was promoted to the second division, Helmes became one of the most important players for his side, scoring seven times in his first five games of the season and keeping Köln at the top of the table. However, he scored the last of those goals with a broken foot. The injury kept him out of the squad for the following four months, during which his team performed extremely poorly and lost all chances to return to the first division.
Patrick did not hide his intention of joining another team. Even though he confirmed that his departure to Bayer Leverkusen would follow the 2007–08 season, Köln coach Christoph Daum
Christoph Daum
Christoph Daum is a German football coach, currently managing Club Brugge.-Career as a player:Daum began his football career in 1971 in the youth league with Hamborn 07, transferred in 1972 to Eintracht Duisburg and then in 1975 to 1...
still named him captain of the squad in the summer of 2007. He was later replaced as captain, but nevertheless had a good second half of the season, for which kicker
Kicker (sports magazine)
kicker Sportmagazin is Germany's leading sports magazine and is focused primarily on football. The magazine was founded in 1920 by German football pioneer Walther Bensemann and is published twice a week, usually Monday and Thursday, in Nuremberg...
sportsmagazine named him best striker of Germany's second division, ahead of Oliver Neuville
Oliver Neuville
Oliver Patric Neuville is a retired German footballer who played as a striker.During an 18-year professional career, he played mainly for Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach , amassing Bundesliga totals of 334 games and 91 goals.Neuville gained almost 70 caps for the German national...
, Chinedu Obasi and Demba Ba
Demba Ba
Demba Ba is a French-born Senegalese footballer who plays as a striker for Newcastle United in the Premier League, and for the Senegal national team.-Early life:Ba was born in Sèvres, Hauts-de-Seine, and was the sixth child of seven...
.
Bayer Leverkusen
At Leverkusen, Helmes had a good start in the 2008–09 season, despite his injury in June which caused him being out of action for three weeks. Forming a duo with Stefan KießlingStefan Kießling
Stefan Kießling is a German footballer who currently plays as a striker for Bayer Leverkusen and Germany. He has also represented the German national team six times.-1. FC Nuremberg:...
, he scored six goals in the first five games of the season, among them a hat-trick against Hannover 96
Hannover 96
Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96, Hannover or simply 96, is a German association football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony.-Foundation to WWII:...
. Only months after signing until 2012, his contract was extended and was then valid until 2013. At the end of his first season at Leverkusen, Helmes had scored 21 goals in 34 league games, and three goals in six appearances in the DFB-Pokal where his team reached the final losing to Werder Bremen
SV Werder Bremen
SV Werder Bremen is a German sports club best known for its association football team playing in Bremen, in the northwest German federal state of the same name. The club was founded on 4 February 1899 as Fußballverein Werder by a group of sixteen vocational high school students who had won a prize...
. Just about two weeks after the final, a cruciate ligament
Anterior cruciate ligament injury
An injury to the anterior cruciate ligament can be a debilitating musculoskeletal injury to the knee, seen most often in athletes. Non-contact tears and ruptures are the most common causes of ACL injury....
in Helmes' right knee tore while Helmes was playing football with friends, and he had to be operated. On 19 December 2010, he scored the second goal of the match to achieve a full time draw against SC Freiburg.
VfL Wolfsburg
On 31 January 2011, Helmes moved to fellow BundesligaFußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...
side VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg is a professional German association football club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, who play in the Bundesliga football competition. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, and were DFB-Pokal runners-up in 1995. The current head coach is Felix...
, the champion of 2008-09 for a reported fee of 8 million €. He thereby replaced striker Edin Džeko
Edin Džeko
Edin Džeko is a Bosnian footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester City and the Bosnian national team. He was named Bosnian Footballer of the Year for 2009 and 2010...
, who had moved to Manchester City earlier that month.
Talk of a potential move to Premier League club, Sunderland, emerges prior to the transfer deadline of 31st August 2011.
International career
Helmes was nominated for the national team for the first time by Joachim Löw. He made his international debut for GermanyGermany national football team
The Germany national football team is the football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association , which was founded in 1900....
in a friendly against Denmark
Denmark national football team
The Denmark national football team represents Denmark in association football and is controlled by the Danish Football Association , the governing body for the football clubs which are organized under DBU...
on 28 March 2007, being substituted for Jan Schlaudraff
Jan Schlaudraff
Jan Schlaudraff is a German footballer who currently plays for Hannover 96, primarily as a striker.-Club career:Schlaudraff started playing professionally for Borussia Mönchengladbach, mainly as a midfielder...
in 80th minute. He made two more short appearances afterwards, before he was nominated for the starting squad for the first time on 12 September 2007 in a friendly against Romania
Romania national football team
The Romania national football team is the national football team of Romania and is controlled by the Romanian Football Federation.Romania is one of only four national teams, the other three being Brazil, France, and Belgium, that took part in the first three World Cups.However, after that...
held at RheinEnergieStadion
RheinEnergieStadion
The RheinEnergieStadion is a football stadium in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was built on the site of the two previous Müngersdorfer stadiums. It is the home of the local Bundesliga team, 1. FC Köln. The stadium was one of the 12 hosting the 2006 FIFA World Cup...
in Cologne, in which he was joined by fellow Cologne local hero Lukas Podolski
Lukas Podolski
Lukas Josef Podolski ; born Łukasz Podolski ) on 4 June 1985 in Gliwice, Poland) is a German footballer who plays as a striker/winger for 1. FC Köln and for the German national team. He joined 1. FC Köln in 1995 where he broke into the first team in 2003 and made 81 appearances for the club before...
. He was included in Löw's 26 man provisional Euro 2008 squad but was eventually left out in favour of Oliver Neuville
Oliver Neuville
Oliver Patric Neuville is a retired German footballer who played as a striker.During an 18-year professional career, he played mainly for Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach , amassing Bundesliga totals of 334 games and 91 goals.Neuville gained almost 70 caps for the German national...
.
After the European Championships, he had a few more appearances as a substitute. Helmes scored his first goal for the national team on 19 November 2008 in a 2—1 friendly defeat against England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
. He scored his second goal for Germany almost two years later in a friendly against Denmark
Denmark national football team
The Denmark national football team represents Denmark in association football and is controlled by the Danish Football Association , the governing body for the football clubs which are organized under DBU...
after coming on as a substitute.
Club performance
|-
|2003–04
2003–04 Fußball-Regionalliga
The 2003–04 Regionalliga season was the tenth since its re-establishment after German reunification and the tenth as a third-level league within the German football league system. It was contested in two geographical divisions with eighteen teams each...
||rowspan="2"|Sportfreunde Siegen
Sportfreunde Siegen
Sportfreunde Siegen is a German association football club based in Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was founded in 1899 as the football department of the gymnastics club Turn Verein Jahn von 1879 Siegen...
||rowspan="2"|Regionalliga Süd||17||1||1||0||-||-||18||1
|-
|2004–05
2004–05 Fußball-Regionalliga
-From Süd:*Rot-Weiß Erfurt*1. FC Saarbrücken111. FC Saarbrücken were promoted due to FC Bayern Munich II being a reserve side which are barred from promotion to the 2. Bundesliga.-Teams Relegated from 2. Bundesliga:-From Nord:...
||34||21||0||0||-||-||34||21
|-
|2005–06||rowspan="3"|1. FC Köln
1. FC Köln
1. FC Köln is a German association football club based in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs Kölner Ballspiel-Club 1901 and SpVgg Sülz 07....
||Bundesliga
Fußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...
||13||4||0||0||-||-||13||4
|-
|2006–07||rowspan="2"|2. Bundesliga
2. Fußball-Bundesliga
- Changes in division set-up :* Number of clubs: currently 18. From 1974 to 1981 there were two conferences, each of 20 teams. In 1981–91 it had 20...
|||19||14||1||0||-||-||20||14
|-
|2007–08||33||17||1||0||-||-||34||17
|-
|2008–09||rowspan="3"|Bayer Leverkusen||rowspan="3"|Bundesliga
Fußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...
||34||21||6||3||-||-||40||24
|-
|2009–10
2009–10 Fußball-Bundesliga
The 2009–10 Fußball-Bundesliga was the 47th season of the Fußball-Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season commenced on 7 August 2009 with the traditional season opening match involving the defending champions VfL Wolfsburg and VfB Stuttgart. The last games were played on 8 May 2010...
||12||2||0||0||-||-||12||2
|-
|2010–11
2010–11 Fußball-Bundesliga
The 2010–11 Fußball-Bundesliga was the 48th season of the Fußball-Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season started on the weekend of 21 August 2010 with the traditional season opening match involving the defending champions and ended with the last games on 14 May 2011. The winter...
||11||5||2||3||7||4||20||12
|-
|2010–11
2010–11 Fußball-Bundesliga
The 2010–11 Fußball-Bundesliga was the 48th season of the Fußball-Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season started on the weekend of 21 August 2010 with the traditional season opening match involving the defending champions and ended with the last games on 14 May 2011. The winter...
||rowspan="2"|VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg is a professional German association football club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, who play in the Bundesliga football competition. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, and were DFB-Pokal runners-up in 1995. The current head coach is Felix...
||rowspan="2"|Bundesliga
Fußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...
||8||1||||||-||-||8||1
|-
|2011–12
2011–12 Fußball-Bundesliga
The 2011–12 Fußball-Bundesliga is the 49th season of the Fußball-Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season started on 5 August 2011 with the season opening match involving defending champions Borussia Dortmund and will end with the last games on 5 May 2012...
||3||2||1||0||0||0||4||2
|-
184||88||12||6||7||4||203||98
International performance
- Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first.
|-
|1. || 19 November 2008 || Olympiastadion, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
|| || 1–1 || 1–2 || Friendly
|-
|2. || 11 August 2010 || Parken Stadium
Parken Stadium
Parken Stadium is a football stadium in the Indre Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990–1992. It currently has a capacity of 38,065 for football games, and is the home ground of F.C. Københaven and the Danish national football team...
, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
|| || 2–0 || 2–2 || Friendly
|}
Personal life
Helmes father is Uwe Helmes, a former professional football player who later managed Siegen, among others. As of 2008, he is working as a scout for Leverkusen.Helmes' nickname is Moppel, a German diminutive
Diminutive
In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
for pug
Pug
The pug is a "toy" breed of dog with a wrinkly, short-muzzled face, and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, and a compact square body with well-developed muscle. They have been described as multum in parvo , referring to the pug's personality and...
, often used to describe a chubby kid.
External links
- Patrick Helmes at Kicker.de
- Patrick Helmes at transfermarkt.de
- Patrick Helmes at worldfootball.net