Andreas Beck and Sejad Salihovic of Hoffenheim discuss with referee Deniz Aytekin during the Bundesliga match between 1899 Hoffenheim and Bayer Leverkusen (Photo by Vladimir Rys/Bongarts/Getty Images)
At 37 years of age, Andreas Beck has done just about everything there is to do in German football. He’s represented Germany at the senior level and led them to glory in the U-21 Euros, he’s won the Bundesliga championship with Stuttgart and emerged as a club legend for Hoffenheim, and he’s learned from some of the greatest coaches in the history of German football. However, Beck’s story started not in Germany, but Russia.
Back in the mid-1700s, when Germany consisted of small territories of the Holy Roman Empire, many Germans found themselves beleaguered by decades of political unrest, financial distress and religious strife, and were desperate to find a new home. On July 22, 1763, the Russian Czarina Catherine the Great, a former German princess herself, submitted an immigration manifesto to attract German and Central European settlers to colonize the peripheral regions of Russia. She offered prospective colonists both autonomy as well as free farmland, believing that the arrival of these proficient farmers and tradesmen would help Russia modernize its economy. Many accepted her offer and chose to establish a new dwelling in Russia, including Beck’s paternal ancestors. They lived in Russia for the next two centuries, but they always kept their German heritage and traditions alive. It wasn’t until the end of World War II that they decided to return to their ancestral homeland, only to find East Berlin occupied by the Soviet military. The Red Army forced them to retreat eastward, but instead of returning to their previous home in Odessa (now Ukraine), they forced them to move to western Siberia, a region known for its freezing temperatures as well as its horrifying gulag system.
It was here that Andreas’ father met his mother, whose family had lived in Siberia for centuries, and it was here in Kemerovo where Andreas was born. Shortly after, the Berlin Wall came crashing down, and the Becks decided to pack their bags, flee the rapidly decaying Soviet Union, and commence a new life in Germany with their three-year-old son Andreas and their six-year-old son Arthur. Initially, they lived in a tented caravan in a designated area for migrants until his parents were finally able to find work and settle down in an apartment. The government incentivized these Russians to go to night school and learn German, and during the day, they provided their children with schooling so that their parents could work.
“It was a difficult time for my parents, but for us, it was a beautiful childhood,” stated Andreas in an exclusive RG interview. “I could see that there wasn’t enough money and that we had to start from scratch. At the end of the month, there wasn’t much to eat or to do, and I remember my mother organizing us all as a family to distribute newspapers to houses and get some extra money in our pockets. That was always the mindset in our first 10 years there: you have to earn it, nobody’s going to gift you anything. That was our childhood, to struggle and just to keep up, and in the end, we still had everything we needed. It was actually a wonderful time because you have dreams of your future, but you also have nothing in your hands.”
Beck would spend his free time kicking around a ball in the streets and bonding with a wide range of youngsters across Southwest Germany thanks to the universal language of football. He grew up idolizing right backs like Dani Alves, Cafu and Philipp Lahm and quickly became enamored with The Beautiful Game, eventually testing his skills at parochial sides DJK-SG Wasseralfingen and SVH Köningsbronn. He’d often accompany his older brother Arthur to training, either before or after his own team’s practice. As such, he not only had twice the amount of training as his age mates, but he was also able to cut his teeth against older, more skilled opponents.
Developing at Stuttgart’s Academy
After impressing in a youth tournament in Ulm, Beck drew the attention of the biggest side in Baden-Württemberg – VfB Stuttgart – whose scouts invited him to undergo trials. He did well enough to convince them to sign them to their U-21 side in 2000, with his first coach being Thomas Tuchel; five years later, he worked under Tuchel again for the U-18s. At the time, Tuchel was a 27-year-old former player who had only just retired due to a knee cartilage injury, and who was balancing his time between working in a bar and gathering his coaching badges.
Tuchel’s first-ever coaching role came in 2000 with Stuttgart’s U-12s, where he managed Beck and other future German internationals Sami Khedira and Serdar Taasci. Fast-forward a quarter-century, he’s won two Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain, he’s led Chelsea to the UEFA Champions League title, he’s coached two of Germany’s biggest clubs in Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, and he is currently serving as the first-ever German manager of the England national team.
“You could see that [Tuchel] knew his football. He was very demanding and still is to this day. He pushed us. It was tough love, but that’s Thomas. I’m very grateful to have had him as my coach.”
Between 1956 and 2011, Germany conscripted young men into their armed forces; only a special exemption could save you from and in order to eschew mandatory military service, you needed to receive a special exemption. Beck managed to avoid conscription due to his burgeoning footballing career as well as his high school diploma in business. He balanced his time between training with Stuttgart’s first team, playing for the first team and reserves, studying for his diploma, and doing a community service program dedicated to helping children with disabilities.
“It shaped me a lot because I’m now very resistant to stress… Can you imagine sitting until noon studying in school, then training at a high level, dealing with pressure from the media and fans, and then in the evening, working with disabled children and providing them with what they need? It was a lot, but it showed me that I can endure these challenges.”
Reaching the Apex of German football
Beck made his first-team debut just one month before turning 18, playing in a Bundesliga match against Arminia Bielefeld. Five days later, he made his European debut in a UEFA Cup match vs. Middlesbrough on February 16, 2006. After ascending to the first-team under the tutelage of legendary Italian manager Giovanni Trappatoni, Beck was promoted to the main squad in the summer of 2006 following Andreas Hinkel’s move to Sevilla.
Whilst Sevilla would go on to win their second-straight UEFA Cup, Stuttgart would end up shocking the world under new coach Armin Veh by reaching the zenith of German football. Having finished ninth the previous season, Stuttgart won their final eight league matches to secure their first championship in 15 years, whilst they also reached the DFB-Pokal Final.
Having struggled for minutes in the title-winning season due to the arrival of Mexican international Ricardo Osorio, Beck would establish himself as a regular contributor in 2007/08 and even provided an assist in his two Champions League appearances vs. Lyon and Rangers. He made 23 first-team appearances, a stark improvement from the 5 from 2006/07, but not quite satisfactory.
Desperate to become a regular starter in the German top-flight, Beck decided to leave his boyhood club in 2008 and join Hoffenheim for €3 million, rejecting interest from Russian giants Spartak Moscow. Beck became one of the first names on the team sheet under Ralf Rangnick, making 32 appearances in 2008/09 and learning from one of the most influential German managers of all time.
“It was the right decision to join Hoffenheim. Rangnick fought to bring me to Hoffenheim two years prior and pitched me every possibility whenever he saw me. He wanted me to come to the third division, then the second division, and then finally brought me into the Bundesliga. I could’ve stayed at Stuttgart, but after eight years, it was time for the next step. I was searching for the next challenge, and I found it at Hoffenheim.”
Success and Setbacks with Germany
Hoffenheim punched above their weight in their first-ever Bundesliga season thanks to their high-intensity Gegenpressing and entered the winter break as the league leaders, only to end up finishing seventh. Beck then packed his bags for Sweden, where he started at right back for Germany in the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship and played alongside future World Cup winners like Manuel Neuer, Jérôme Boateng, Mesut Özil, and Mats Hummels. He scored in the semifinal to lead them to a 1-0 victory against Italy, before delivering a composed display in defense in a 4-0 win against England in the final.
“I was a top player at the youth level, but then there were 2–3 years at the senior level, where I was always in the second row. I’d come off the bench for the last few minutes and then found myself on the bench again. The U-21 Euros was the moment where I played every minute and won my first real title,” recalled Beck. “Even when you look at the names on that team, it’s already a huge achievement, and winning this championship makes me proud until this day. I still remember it like it was yesterday.”
Despite struggling with injuries, Beck managed 26 appearances in the 2009/10 season and became a regular figure in the German senior team. He was even included on the 30-man preliminary squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, only to end up missing out on the trip to South Africa at the eleventh hour.
“In the end, it was between taking a striker and a wing-back, and Löw wanted to have a striker on the bench more than a wing-back. It hurt a lot to not be invited to this tournament, especially after doing a six-week training camp, but that was also an opportunity to rise up. I had a short summer break and then became Hoffenheim’s captain, so the next challenge was already in front of me, and I looked forward to it and kept going with a new mindset.”
Leaving his Legacy in Hoffenheim and Tasting Glory in Turkey
Beck would make just two more appearances for Die Mannschaft before ending his international career with just nine caps. Nevertheless, he remained a crucial figure for Hoffenheim and was even given the captain’s armband ahead of the 2010/11 season. An ever-present at right back, Beck’s stellar displays attracted the interest of Italian powerhouse Juventus, who tabled a €10 million offer for him in the January window. Hoffenheim’s billionaire owner Dietmar Hopp laughed off the bid, and Beck remained put in Sinsheim.
By the time the summer window commenced, Juventus had changed their coach and sporting director. They ended up signing Stephan Lichtsteiner from Lazio and achieving an unprecedented dynasty in Serie A. Juve would win nine straight league titles between 2011/12 to 2019/20, whilst Hoffenheim would place 11th in 2011/12 for the third straight year. As a result of this middle-of-the-road finish, Beck voluntarily resigned the captaincy, with new goalkeeper Tim Wiese assuming the responsibility before injuring his knee, prompting Beck to retake the armband.
Thanks to Beck’s dependable performances on defense, Hoffenheim staved off the drop after beating Kaiserslautern in the promotion/relegation playoffs, before enjoying a resurgence under Markus Gisdol and finishing 9th and 8th in 2013/14 and 2014/15. In the summer of 2015, he decided it was time for a new direction and left Germany for the first time in his adult life, joining Turkish colossus Beşiktaş J.K.. He departed Hoffenheim as their second all-time appearance maker (237) after teammate Sejad Salihović (249) – he has since been surpassed by Oliver Baumann, Sebastian Rudy, Andrej Kramarić, and Pavel Kadeřábek.
“[Turkey] is a totally different football world, a totally different culture. Everything is different, but it’s very demanding.
If someone said, ‘He’s going to a lower league like Turkey, his career is done,’ I’d say that if you go to the top teams like Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor, it’s intense,” said Beck. “We won the championship in both of my years there, but there were some close games. You’re not allowed to lose. If you lose, then maybe Gala goes ahead of you, but I’m very glad that we were successful and performed well in the Champions League. I played for Stuttgart, it’s intense and tough, but this was another level. I can only imagine that it’s similar to playing for Bayern or Dortmund.”
Beck was able to reunite with former teammates Mario Gómez and Demba Ba and play alongside other veteran stars like Ricardo Quaresma and Atiba Hutchinson, emerging as a vital cog on the right side of defense. He helped end a seven-year title drought and steered Beşiktaş to back-to-back championships, before deciding to return to his boyhood club in 2017. It was time to take care of unfinished business at Stuttgart.
Stay tuned for Part Two.
Zach Lowy is a freelance football journalist who has written for leading outlets like FotMob, BetUS, Apuestas Deportivas, and who has appeared as a radio and television guest for BBC, SiriusXMFC, and various other platforms. After pursuing a global sports journalism degree at George Washington University, Zach has been able to tap into his multilingual background and interview major footballing figures in Spanish and Portuguese as well as operate the weekly podcast 'Zach Lowy's European Football Show' on BET Central.
