Patrick Helmes

Patrick Helmes

Helmes with Köln in 2013.
Personal information
Full name Patrick Helmes
Date of birth (1984-03-01) 1 March 1984
Place of birth Cologne, West Germany
Height 1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current team
 1. FC Köln II (assistant)
Youth career
1989–1991 TuS Alchen
1991–1992 SpVgg Bürbach
1992–1997 Sportfreunde Siegen
1997–2000 1. FC Köln
2000–2003 Sportfreunde Siegen
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2003–2005 Sportfreunde Siegen 51 (22)
2005–2008 1. FC Köln 65 (35)
2005–2006 1. FC Köln II 7 (4)
2008–2011 Bayer Leverkusen 57 (28)
2011–2013 VfL Wolfsburg 28 (13)
2011–2013 VfL Wolfsburg II 10 (11)
2013–2015 1. FC Köln 27 (12)
Total 245 (125)
National team
2004 Germany Team 2006 1 (0)
2005–2006 Germany U21 9 (3)
2007–2010 Germany 13 (2)
Teams managed
2015– 1. FC Köln II (assistant)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Patrick Helmes (born 1 March 1984) is a German former footballer who played as a striker. He currently works as assistant manager for 1. FC Köln II.

Helmes retired from professional football at the age of 31.

Club career

Early career

As a youth player, Helmes was active in local clubs in Freudenberg, Westphalia 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.

1. FC Köln

He then joined his old club Köln again, where he made his 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.

Helmes 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.[1]

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.[2] Forming a duo with Stefan Kießling, 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.[3] 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.[4] 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 Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg, the champion of 2008–09 for a reported fee of €8 million.[5] He only made eight appearances for the club in his first half-season, facing competition by the club's top strikers Grafite and Mario Mandžukić.

The next season started out better for Helmes, who scored twice in the first game against former team Köln. However, those were his last goals of the first half of the season in which he made his final appearance on October, 1st. Helmes even got banned from the Bundesliga squad by manager Felix Magath and had to train with the reserves. He made his comeback appearance in the Bundesliga on 25 February 2012, instantly scoring against Hoffenheim. By the end of the season, he had scored nine more times.

In August 2012, Helmes tore his cruciate ligament in a friendly against Manchester City.[6] His first appearance in the 2012–13 Bundesliga season was on 15 February 2013, against Bayern Munich.

International career

Helmes was selected for the national team for the first time by Joachim Löw. He made his international debut for Germany 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 selected 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 1–2 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.

Coaching career

After retiring in the summer 2015, Helmes became the new assistant manager of 1. FC Köln II.[7]

Personal life

Helmes' father is Uwe Helmes, a former professional football player who later managed Siegen, among others. As of 2008, he works as a scout for Leverkusen.

Career statistics

Club performance

As of 15 January 2015
Club performanceLeagueCupLeague CupContinentalTotal
ClubLeagueSeasonAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
GermanyLeagueDFB-PokalDFB-LigapokalEuropeTotal
Sportfreunde SiegenRegionalliga Süd2003–0417110——181
2004–05342100——3421
1. FC KölnBundesliga2005–0613400——134
2. Bundesliga2006–07191410——2014
2007–08331710——3417
Bayer LeverkusenBundesliga2008–09342163——4024
2009–101220020142
2010–1111523742012
VfL Wolfsburg8100—81
2011–12161210—1712
2012–134010—50
1. FC Köln2. Bundesliga2013–14271210—2812
Bundesliga2014–150000—00
Career statistics2181101460094241120

International performance

Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first.
Patrick Helmes: International goals
Goal Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 19 November 2008 Olympiastadion, Berlin, Germany  England 1–1 1–2 Friendly
2. 11 August 2010 Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark  Denmark 2–0 2–2 Friendly

Honours

Club

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

References

  1. ↑ "Die Verwandlung des Patrick Helmes" (in German). kicker.de. 10 July 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  2. ↑ "Drei Wochen Pause für Helmes" (in German). kicker.de. 25 June 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  3. ↑ "Bayer verlängert vorzeitig mit Helmes" (in German). kicker.de. 19 September 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  4. ↑ "Shock in Leverkusen!". bundesliga.de. 12 June 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  5. ↑ "VfL Wolfsburg holt Nationalstürmer Patrick Helmes" (in German). vfl-wolfsburg.de. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  6. ↑ "Schock für Helmes: Kreuzbandriss!" (in German). kicker.de. 5 August 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  7. ↑ "Helmes und Grauer werden Co-Trainer" (in German). FC Köln. 19 June 2015.
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