The one and only German to play for Manchester United in the Premier League was holding midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who was signed for the Red Devils by Louis van Gaal, on a three-year contract, on July 13, 2015. Schweinsteiger made his Premier League debut on August 8, 2015, replacing Michael after an hour during a 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford in the opening match of the 2015/16 season.
However, he subsequently fell out of favour with José Mourinho, who replaced van Gaal on May 27, 2016 and was, at one point, banished to training with the under-23 squad, thereby limiting his opportunities for first-team football. All told, Schweinsteiger made just 18 appearances for the Manchester United first team, before completing a move to Chicago Fire on March 21, 2017, where he remained until his retirement from professional football on Pctober 8, 2019.
Bavarian town of Kolbermoor, near Munich, on August 1, 1984, Schweinsteiger originally signed for Bayern Munich as a 14-year-old, but went on to become a mainstay of the senior first team, making 500 competitive appearances and earning himself the nickname of ‘Fußballgott’ or, in English, ‘Football God’. At international level, he was similarly ever-present, making 121 appearances for the German national between 2004 and 2016. Former manager Joachim Löw, who led Germany to victory in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, said that Schweinsteiger was ‘certainly one of the greatest players Germany has had’.
To avoid any confusion, two other German players, midfielder Markus Neumayr and goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler were on the books at Old Trafford, between 2003 and 2006 and 2005 and 2008, respectively, but neither ever played for the first time, in the Premier League or elsewhere. Zieler came the closest of the pair to first team action, being named as an unused substitute in a League Cup match against Middlesbrough at Old Trafford on September 23, 2008.