Meet Tobias: Elder brother of German International Bastian Schweinsteiger
The Beginning
Born in the town of Oberaudouf in Rosenheim to parents who own and operate a ski shop, he almost took up skiing as a profession in his youth but the extreme cold and the dearth of things to do in his town turned a young Tobias’s attention to football.
As a 10-year-old, he was always fascinated by English football and admired the exploits of Eric Cantona in the famous red of United. Cantona’s impressive personality drew a young Tobias to frequently watch Manchester United play, and he has been a United fan ever since!
Footballing Career
Tobias began his footballing education as a forward with FV Oberaudorf before going on to represent his hometown club TSV 1860 Rosenheim. Austrian side FC Kufstein came knocking shortly afterwards and after a period of twenty-four months, the young German found himself back at FV Oberaudorf once again.
He joined Bavarian amateur sides SV Nußdorf and Falke Markt Schwaben after being released by SpVgg Unterhaching in 2001 and spent eighteen months playing for SSV Jahn Regensburg's reserve team.
Schweinsteiger went on to join FC Ismaning in 2004 where his impressive performances prompted Regionalliga Nord side VfB Lübeck to fetch his signature after half of the season. He impressed in his stint with VfB Lübeck as well, scoring 18 goals in 46 appearances, but his efforts to guide the club to 2.Bundesliga after finishing 3rd in both his seasons at the club ended in a failure.
Tobias thus chose to leave Lübeck in 2006 and make the climb to 2.Bundesliga with Eintracht Braunschweig. His spell with Die Löwen was a disaster though, as they were relegated, which meant that he found himself in search of a new club once again.
During this time Schweinsteiger was also involved in a car accident that left a 13-year-old girl dead, although police investigation later revealed that Schweinsteiger was not at fault for the fatal accident.
His career was now on a downward spiral as he joined VfB Lübeck again for a period of six months before returning to his youth side SpVgg Unterhaching in the Regionalliga Süd , where he found some consistency and averaged over 80 appearances in his two seasons at the club.
In the summer of 2010, Unterhaching were forced to cut costs, and Schweinsteiger was on the move again, joining another of his former clubs, Jahn Regensburg. He had two successful seasons with Regensburg, finishing as their top scorer on both occasions with nine and fourteen goals respectively.
In the latter season, he captained Regensburg to a third place finish and won promotion to the 2.Bundesliga with a playoff victory over Karlsruher SC.
Spell at Bayern Munich
Now, Germany's most successful and popular club Bayern Munich came calling for the services of the veteran striker to lead their reserve team in the Regionalliga (Germany’s fourth tier). Stefan Buck, Altin Lala & Tobias were the three experienced players brought in by coach Mehmet Scholl to help the young team earn promotion to the 3. Liga.
His first season for Die Roten was a disappointment as he returned to SpVgg Unterhaching on a six-month loan stint in January 2013, to replace the out-going Florian Niederlechner. Meanwhile, Bayern II finished in second place, narrowly missing out on promotion.
Schweinsteiger returned to the team for the 2013–14 season and scored fourteen goals as Bayern II won the division althougn they missed out on promotion after losing on away goals to Fortuna Köln in the playoffs.
Retirement and coaching role
After the 2014-15 campaign, Bayern Munich were in the process of converting their reserve team into a strictly U21 team, which meant players like Schweinsteiger would no longer be able to feature for FC Bayern II.
Tobias wanted to continue playing for another season but the club decided against a contract extension, thus bringing the curtain down on his career as the Bavarian did not want to ply his trade with any other team other than Die Roten. In his last match with the club, Bayern fans serenaded the player with chants usually reserved for his brother Bastian.
Bayern Officials later convinced the elder Schweinsteiger sibling to join their coaching set up and assist in restructuring the Bayern youth setup. The UEFA – B licence holder is now the assistant coach of the U-17 side and aims to provide a unified playing philosophy throughout the ranks. He wants all the Bayern youth teams to play dominant, quick and offensive football.
In a recent interview with SPOX, the Bavarian spoke of his desire to achieve even more success in his career and guide FC Bayern B to the championship title after having won a title in the previous season and featuring in a final in Frankfurt.
Bayern fans will surely hope that Tobias turns into a coach who is deserving of the name of “Fußballgott“, which was given to his younger brother for the German’s supreme playing abilities.