| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Patrick Helmes | ||
| Date of birth | 1 March 1984 | ||
| Place of birth | Cologne, West Germany | ||
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | VfL Wolfsburg | ||
| Number | 33 | ||
| 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) |
| 2008–2011 | Bayer Leverkusen | 56 | (28) |
| 2011– | VfL Wolfsburg | 14 | (3) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2005–2006 | Germany U21 | 9 | (3) |
| 2007– | Germany | 13 | (2) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 02:23, 21 December 2011 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). |
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Patrick Helmes (born 1 March 1984 in Cologne) is a German football striker who plays for VfL Wolfsburg. Until September 2007 he was captain of 1. FC Köln.
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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.
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.
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.[1]
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.
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 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.
Helmes was nominated 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 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.
| Club performance | League | Cup | Continental | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Germany | League | DFB-Pokal | Europe | Total | ||||||
| 2003–04 | Sportfreunde Siegen | Regionalliga Süd | 17 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 18 | 1 |
| 2004–05 | 34 | 21 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 34 | 21 | ||
| 2005–06 | 1. FC Köln | Bundesliga | 13 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 13 | 4 |
| 2006–07 | 2. Bundesliga | 19 | 14 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 20 | 14 | |
| 2007–08 | 33 | 17 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 34 | 17 | ||
| 2008–09 | Bayer Leverkusen | 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 | VfL Wolfsburg | Bundesliga | 8 | 1 | - | - | 8 | 1 | ||
| 2011–12 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | ||
| Career total | 184 | 88 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 203 | 98 | ||
| 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 |
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 for pug, often used to describe a chubby kid.[7]
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