Christian Fuchs Biography
Christian Fuchs was born on 7 April 1986, he is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a left back for English club Leicester City. He began his senior career as a teenager at Wiener Neustadt before signing his first professional contract at 17 with SV Mattersburg, challenging for the Austrian Football Bundesliga title and taking part in European competitions.
In 2008, he left for Germany, signing for VfL Bochum. After a season on loan at 1. FSV Mainz 05, he signed for FC Schalke 04 in 2011, where he contested the UEFA Champions League but suffered a serious knee injury. In 2015, he signed for Leicester, winning the Premier League in his first season at the club.
A full international for a decade starting from his debut in 2006, Fuchs earned 78 caps for Austria, making him their eighth-most capped player of all time. He played for the nation at UEFA Euro 2008 and UEFA Euro 2016, captaining them for the first time in 2010 and on a permanent basis from 2012, before retiring from international duty in 2016.
Christian Fuchs Age
Date of birth: 7 April 1986 (age 32)
Place of birth: Neunkirchen, Austria
Height: 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position: Left back
Christian Fuchs Wife
Fuchs’ wife Raluca Gold-Fuchs, with whom he has a stepson, son, and daughter, is a businesswoman formerly of Goldman Sachs. She lives with their children in Manhattan and Fuchs sees them once a month. He runs a public relations company and a football academy in the same city, and plans to move there permanently after his football career.
Mr Fuchs, 30, currently lives in Leicester but his wife Raluca Gold-Fuchs lives with their children in Manhattan.
Fuchs Leicester City
On 3 June 2015, Leicester City announced the signing of Fuchs on a free transfer, signing a three-year deal with the Foxes effective from 1 July. Signed under previous manager Nigel Pearson, Fuchs didn’t have a regular spot in new manager Claudio Ranieri’s squad until October. Fuchs made an appearance in Leicester’s third round League Cup tie against West Ham United, providing an assist for Andy King’s extra time winner.
Following a 2–5 loss to Arsenal on 26 September, Ranieri elected to shake up his defensive back four, inserting Fuchs and teammate Danny Simpson in place of Jeffrey Schlupp and Ritchie De Laet, respectively. Fuchs made his first Premier League start the next week against Norwich
In his first season, Leicester finished as champions on odds of 5,000–1, making Fuchs the first Austrian to receive a Premier League winners’ medal since Arsenal’s Alex Manninger in 1998. Following the insertion of Fuchs into the lineup on Matchday 8, Leicester City led the Premier League in clean sheets along with Arsenal, with 15. Fuchs himself led the league during this period in successful tackles with 77, while finishing second in interceptions with 98.
Prior to signing for Leicester, Fuchs had an offer to play in the United States, where his family live, but he turned it down for financial reasons. He said in March 2016 “My intention is to play in the US. I have come [to Leicester] for three years. I decided that I would sign one last contract in Europe, when I left Schalke, then go to the US.”
On 21 October 2016, Fuchs signed a new contract with Leicester, keeping him with the club until June 2019. The next day, Fuchs scored his first goal for Leicester against Crystal Palace, volleying home a corner-kick clearance by Christian Benteke for the team’s final goal in a 3–1 victory.
Fuchs Austria
Fuchs made his debut for Austria on 23 May 2006 in a friendly match against Croatia, replacing Stefan Lexa for the final six minutes of the 1–4 loss at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna.
He was part of the Austrian international squad as they co-hosted UEFA Euro 2008 alongside Switzerland. He made only one appearance in the group stage elimination, playing the entirety of the 1–0 loss to Germany in their last match of the tournament.
On 11 August 2010, in the absence of regular skipper Marc Janko, Fuchs captained his nation for the first time in a 0–1 friendly loss to the Swiss in Klagenfurt. That 17 November, he scored his first international goal, equalising in a 1–2 home friendly loss to Greece.
Fuchs received the armband on a permanent basis at the behest of manager Marcel Koller on 13 August 2012. He played all 10 games as they qualified for UEFA Euro 2016, the first time they did so, and featured in every minute of the group stage elimination in France. Afterwards, he retired from international play with a total of 78 caps, declaring “I am very proud of the 10 years that I have spent with the national team. I did everything with passion and, as I said, I am very, very proud.”
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Fuchs Goal
Christian Fuchs Schalke
On 6 June 2011, Fuchs signed a contract until 30 June 2015 with Schalke 04. The transfer fee is reportedly undisclosed by Schalke’s sport and communications manager Horst Heldt. Fuchs was assigned the number 23 shirt, previously worn by Danilo Fernando Avelar. In his time at the team from Gelsenkirchen, he competed in the UEFA Champions League, but suffered a long-term knee injury.
Christian Fuchs Transfer
Leicester City FC news: Christian Fuchs confirms he will move to America in 2019
talkSPORT, 30th April 2018
Christian Fuchs has confirmed he will leave Leicester when his current contract expires in 2019. The Austrian defender will return to New York, where his family live, following four years at the King Power Stadium. Fuchs, who joined on a free transfer from Schalke in 2015, was a key part of the club’s stunning Premier League title win in 2015/16.
He said: “I promised my wife I would be coming home. I also want to see my children growing up, it’s good we have FaceTime because letters wouldn’t work,” the former Austria international told Press Association Sport.
“It was already a big decision extending my contract one more year but it was a good thing for the family.
“I’ve enjoyed my time in Leicester, I’ve had the biggest success here and I love the club.”
The Foxes have missed out on European football and boss Claude Puel, who only joined in October, has come under fire after two wins from 11 league games. But Fuchs believes the Frenchman, who won Ligue 1 with Monaco in his second season at the club and took Lyon to the Champions League semi-final, needs time at Leicester.
“It’s the nature of football, everything is very short-term. I’m also a fan of consistency and not changing everything around again and again,” he said, before Saturday’s 5-0 defeat at Crystal Palace.
“You need to be given time, we had the same with the Austrian national team where consistency led to us going from 100-something in the world to the top 10.
“The problem with club football is the success has to be there tomorrow.”
Fuchs will end his European career having been told as a teenager he would never make it as a professional and is now helping the next generation with his Fox Soccer Academy. Fuchs already has arms of the academy in New York and Austria and is launching phase two of his project – a scholarship programme for 16 to 19-year-olds – a couple of years after it took off in Leicester.
“It’s never going to be the case I’m completely done; I love the club, the city and appreciate the people. Maybe I want to build a bit of my own legacy here,” he said.
“From this guy who wasn’t good enough, I ended up a Premier League champion.
“I was scouted from some academies from Bundesliga teams and didn’t get good feedback.
“It fuels the motivation I have with the academy, that there’s a child who hasn’t been discovered yet or had the same problem of being told they weren’t good enough.”
He founded the academy with Heinz Griesmayer, who he worked with as a youth player at Austrian side Wiener Neustadt, and initially opened it for eight to 16-year-olds in Leicester after joining the Foxes.
It is now recruiting 25 players between 16 and 19-years-old to become its elite squad for a two-year scholarship. It will offer games against professional clubs and the chance to enter the FA Youth Cup, as well as education opportunities like A-Levels and coaching badges, with Crystal Palace academy coach Mark Smith a key part of the set-up.
While his nurturing approach is paying off the former Austria international received an altogether different experience during his time with boyhood idol Dietmar Kuhbauer at ex-club Mattersburg. He said: “I had an idol growing up, Didi Kuhbauer, and when I became professional I had a chance to work with him. He was the age I am now and I was 17 – I was afraid of him for five years.
“That doesn’t exist anymore but now I’m thankful for that because he built me up for what may come in the future. He saw my potential.”
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Buy an authentic Leicester City FC Christian Fuchs shirts for the 2016/17 Season. Home Christian Fuchs Leicester City FC Jersey and Women’s Christian Fuchs Jersy.
Christian Fuchs Liverpool
Christian Fuchs: Liverpool didn’t give Leicester a chance to play in 4-1 defeat
12th Sep 2016
Leicester City defender Christian Fuchs praised Liverpool after losing 4-1 at Anfield on Saturday, feeling that the Reds didn’t give the champions a chance to play.
Liverpool ran riot at Anfield in front of their newly-built Main Stand on Saturday evening, as a record sellout 54,000 crowd enjoyed a dominant display.
It wasn’t so enjoyable for the reigning champions and their travelling fans though, as Leicester’s difficult start to the defence of their crown continued.
Fuchs and his teammates couldn’t handle the movement of Sadio Mane, Daniel Sturridge and Roberto Firmino, with the defender stating that the Reds didn’t give Leicester a chance to play.
“I think we started the game well in the first couple of minutes,” the 30-year-old told LCFC TV (via the club’s official website) after the game. “We had some good attacks but when you’re 2-0 down at Anfield, it’s always hard.
“We scored to make it 2-1 then I think we might have changed the game. It was a goal that we needed in the first half to come back, but unfortunately, it stayed as one goal and not another one. Still, we fought, but Liverpool were the better team.
“We had momentum but we couldn’t capitalise on the header from Huthy (Robert Huth). It’s tough. Liverpool look a very strong team this season. They look confident in possession and they never really gave us a chance to play our game.”
Fuchs Position
Defender
Detailed position. Main position : Left-Back. Other position(s): Left Midfield. Market value development. Current market value: 5,00 Mill. €.
Christian Fuchs Injury
Leicester's Christian Fuchs suffers weird training ground injury - and fans are all making the same joke about it
Marco Asensio’s pimple that he infected when shaving his legs may never, ever be beaten, but Leicester City’s Christian Fuchs has come up with another entry for the weird injury hall of fame .
The Austrian full-back – a key member of the Foxes team that won the Premier League in 2015/16 – has been rated doubtful for Saturday’s trip to Huddersfield by his boss Craig Shakespeare because of a freak eye injury.
At his press conference on Thursday, Shakespeare confirmed that Fuchs suffered a blow to the eye after “a nasty, freak accident with a pole in training.”
Foxes boss Craig Shakespeare revealed: “He was standing quite close to one of the poles that we use for one of the warm-ups — for running in and out of.
“A ball just got played, quite innocuously. Thankfully the pole didn’t come out of the ground, but the top end of the pole flicked back and caught him on the eye. It could have been a lot worse but I don’t think anyone realised the seriousness of it to begin with because some players feign injury and mess about.
“Thankfully we had the medical staff on there straight away. It is just under the eye but in terms of the socket the pole went into the socket and he has a slight cut.
“It was nasty at the time, he’s looked better on Wednesday and Thursday but whether he’s available for Saturday we will see.
“He can see out of it now but it closed up straight away and it didn’t look the best. By the time he has come in on Wednesday and Thursday, it’s cleared up a bit.”
Foxes fans – and indeed general football fans – will wish the 31-year-old well, but that fairly encouraging update from Shakespeare did at least let them joke about the incident.
And there was one particular joke that they settled on.
One particular joke about Fuchs’ collision with a pole.
A pole.
Just one…
Care to guess what it is?
Bingo.
That’s the Polish international defender Marcin Wasilewski they’re referring to there, with the 37-year-old having been released by the Foxes in the summer after four years at the club.
Polish. Pole.
Get it?!
Of course you do.
Wonderful stuff.
Fuchs suffered an eye injury after a “nasty, freak accident with a pole in training”. #LCFC
He will see a specialist this afternoon.
— LCFC Live (@LiveLCFC) September 14, 2017
Christian Fuchs News
Leicester City’s Fuchs wants MLS move in his future
17/6/2018
The Austrian defender has a year left on his Leicester City contract, and is hoping to make a move to MLS to be closer to his family. Christian Fuchs is just two years removed from celebrating an unlikely English Premier League title, and believes he’s several years away from the end of his career, but the Leicester City defender is eager to spend the final years of his playing career on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The 32-year-old Austrian defender is coming off another solid season with the Foxes, and has one more year left on his Leicester City contract. When that season concludes, Fuchs has every intention of setting up shop in Major League Soccer, a move that would bring him closer to his wife and three children, who live in Manhattan.
“I have one more year now in England and I’ve always said very openly that I want to move over here (to the United States),” Fuchs told Goal in an exclusive interview. “I want to be part of the community. I want to play football over here. I’m not coming over as an old player looking for his last contract. I want to come over here and play as long as possible.
“I’m 32 now. I don’t want to come here when I’m 36 or 37.”
The veteran left-back, who was the social media star of Leicester City’s title-winning team in 2016, has spent the past few years splitting time between his home in England and his family’s home in New York City. His current commute sees him travel from London to Leicester. He will be hoping to exchange that for a U.S. commute that allows him to spend more time with his family.
American soccer fans will remember Fuchs as the smiling jokester who chronicled Leicester City’s title-winning campaign on Twitter and Instagram. His Twitter video of the moment Leicester City’s players reacted to winning the Premier League title was viewed more than 10 million times.
Fuchs struck a much lower profile after that title triumph. He cut back significantly on his social media presence, owing the change to burnout.
“I got tired of it. It took over my life,” Fuchs said. “I didn’t enjoy it after a certain point. It helped me a lot because I got to know how it all worked, but at some point it bothered me more than I enjoyed doing it. In the title-winning season I was always on top of it, but the season after I couldn’t be bothered to do it. It was no fun for me, and when I do something I want to have fun doing, not just for the sake of doing it.”
“I’m getting back into it,” Fuchs said. “I’ve overcome the social media burnout a little bit. I’m not putting pressure on myself to post all the time. When I post I have fun with it, I show people that I’m not just a football player.”
Though his interest go well beyond soccer, Fuchs is quick to point out that his playing career remains the priority, and plotting a move to the United States is at the top of his list.
“My goal now is to make the right step and come to MLS,” Fuchs said. “I’m trying to figure out what options are out there. I’d love to come to New York, but I don’t want to limit myself. The only limit for me is I’d prefer to be on the East Coast, because when you talk about the West Coast I’d rather stay in England since it’s the same distance as England.”
The market for a fullback of Fuchs’ quality should be a healthy one in MLS, but chances are he will have to look beyond New York. New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls both have strong left-back options, though both the Philadelphia Union and D.C. United could make sense as future destinations for Fuchs.
A move to MLS this summer is highly unlikely considering Fuchs currently earns more than three times as much as the highest-paid defender in the league. A move for the 2019 MLS season, either in the January window, or in the summer of 2019, seems more likely. Fuchs will turn 33 early in the 2019 season, but he insists he is still playing at a high level and has several more years to play.
“I feel really good,” Fuchs said. “I’ve got a lot of years of playing left and when the time is right I’m ready to come play here (in the United States).”