Horst Heldt

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Horst Heldt (born 9 December 1969 in Königswinter) is a former German football player, now general manager at Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart.

[edit] Career as player

Heldt played at 1.FC Köln from 1990 until 1995, before transferring to TSV 1860 München. After four years there, he went to Eintracht Frankfurt in 1999. After the club was relegated in 2001, he played for Austrian side Sturm Graz. In January of 2003, Heldt returned to Germany, to VfB Stuttgart.

He always played as a midfielder. His tally of Bundesliga matches is 356. Heldt also played for the German national team twice.

[edit] Career as manager

After only being a substitute and not getting any playing time at VfB Stuttgart in the first half of the 2005/06 season under coach Giovanni Trapattoni, Heldt decided to end his active career on 3 January 2006 to take over the post of general manager of the club.

As manager, Heldt supported the sacking of Trappatoni and the hiring of new coach Armin Veh. Due to Heldt, Veh's initial stop-gap contract was extended into the 2006/2007 season which became Stuttgart's most successful ever, winning the championship and qualifying for the German Cup final which is to be played on 25th of May in Berlin.