Marwin Hitz

It all started in Freidorf bei Arbon, a small town near St. Gallen, where Marwin Hitz was first scouted while playing in a local tournament. At nine years of age, he joined FC St. Gallen, where he would remain for 12 years. He worked his way up through the ranks of the youth set-up, made the step up to the U21s – but then wasn't able to break through into the first team. A couple of loan spells beckoned – first at Yverdon-Sport FC and then at FC Winterthur – before he decided to make the big move to Germany, signing for Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg, where he initially played for the reserve team in the Regionalliga North before working his way up to the first team.

Hitz had a long wait before making his debut against Villareal in the Europa League on 18 February 2010 and then playing in the Bundesliga for the first time a few days later against Schalke 04. He played in 13 games for Wolfsburg before departing for Augsburg in 2013. Hitz certainly made his mark during his time in Bavaria - his 141 appearances set a new club record for a goalkeeper. He proved an ever-dependable figure for Augsburg, saving 73% of on-target shots during his time at the club. He wrote himself into the history books in a match against Leverkusen on 21 February 2015: Hitz poured forward deep into injury time and grabbed a dramatic equaliser to snatch a 2-2 draw - making him the third goalkeeper to score a goal in the Bundesliga (after Jens Lehmann in 1997 and Frank Rost in 2002). At his last home game for FCA in 2018, club captain Daniel Baier was clearly sad to see him go: ''Time to say goodbye to another old hand. His departure is going to hurt.'' Coach Manuel Baum struck a similar note: ''Hitz has achieved great things during his time here in Augsburg. He was always very analytical and was someone you could have a great conversation about football with.''

Marwin Hitz has been the second-choice goalkeeper at BVB since 2018. In his two years at the club, he’s made 12 competitive appearances - notching up an impressive overall record: ten wins (including two against Bayern Munich), one draw (0-0 against FC Schalke 04) and just one defeat (3-2 against Werder Bremen in the last 16 of the 2019/20 DFB Cup). He played four matches in the 2019/20 Bundesliga season, conceding only one goal and keeping a clean sheet for his last 288 minutes of play. He saved five of the six shots on his goal last season (83%) and prevented two major goalscoring opportunities.

Marwin Hitz is a pleasant conversation partner. The 32-year-old (born 18.09.1987) is calm, detailed and to-the-point and is known among his teammates for being down-to-earth, dependable and loyal. The Swiss claims to have never had a role model when he was younger, but does say: ''I always followed Jens Lehmann's career, probably because he managed to improve with age. I always liked that about him. He didn't let himself get complacent, he always looked to develop himself further and that meant he was able to play at the very highest level right until the end of his career.''

The decision to leave Augsburg certainly wasn't easy for the family – wife Patricia and children Matteo and Laurin Rene. ''We didn't want for anything in Augsburg. We had two wonderful, healthy children during my time there.'' However, he felt he had to take the plunge if he wanted to make it to the next level: ''Dortmund are a massive club. You just have to be happy when you hear a club like that are interested in you.''