Racism is one big menace in the society which has been fought on so many grounds. Unfortunately, people continue to be segregated based on reasons like ethnicity or race. The UN has officially defined this act as racial discrimination. Interestingly, several members of the association football have also been a victim of racism at one some point or the other. These include officials, players and even fans being abused on the grounds of ethnicity, ethnicity or even team alliance. FIFA, UEFA, and most football bodies have taken measures to curb this menace but it still remains.

On Wednesday, 18th October 2017, Antonio Rudiger, was reportedly taunted with monkey chants by supporters of Roma. This happened during at Stamford Bridge during a League match. It should be recalled that Antonio left Roma because of issues surrounding racism. UEFA opened a charge against the club when its attention was called to it but it was closed in November without any punishment. Antonio Rudiger is currently a Chelsea F.C defender and he wears the number 2 jersey.

BIOGRAPHY

Antonio Rudiger is a professional footballer of German nationality born on the 3rd of March 1993. His birthplace is Berlin, the largest city in Germany which also doubles as its capital. In 2015, the sports television channel, ESPN, was full of praises for the young athlete who is mostly recognized as a versatile defender. At 25, Antonio is tall (6 feet 3inches, 190cm). He weighs 85 kg and has an athletic body build. His sports shoes were designed by Nike.

There is no public information on Antonio’s education so it is difficult to say for sure if he had any sort of formal education or not. What we do know is that he loves football.

Antonio developed a passion for football at a young age of 7. He joined the youth club, VfB Sperber Neukolln in 2000 and remained there till 2002 before moving on to SV Tasmania Berlin till 2005. Next in line for the teenage athlete were Neukollner Sportfreunde 1907 (in 2005- 2006) and FC Hertha 03 Zehlendorf (in 2006- 2008), Borussia Dortmund (in 2008- 2011).

The German sports club, Verein fur Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e.V. (VfB Stuttgart) took Antonio in July 2011. He represented the club in the 3. Liga and the 1. Bundesliga on the reserves and first team respectively. In April 2013, his contract was extended till June 2017 and he was subsequently loaned to the Italian football club, Associazione Sportiva Roma popularly called Roma in 2015. Roma went on to sign him for an additional 4 years with €9million in 2016. At the end of his second season, he had recorded 35 appearances and 4 assists.

In July 2017, Chelsea signed a deal of €29 million with the defender and gave him the jersey number 2. When Chelsea defeated Everton in the 2017 EFL Cup round of 16, Antonio scored one of the club’s two goals. In the 2018- 2019 UEFA Europa League, the player has already recorded one goal which was against Manchester United on 20th October 2018.

Rudiger also plays for his country, Germany, and is eligible to play for Sierra Leone, his maternal country as well. He played for the German youth football teams to the U21 level. He was also a member of the German team which emerged victorious in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup hosted by Russia. He played the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier and made it to the final squad.

FAMILY

Antonio’s father is a German man named Matthias Rudiger while his mom is of Sierra Leonean nationality. 33year old retired footballer, Sahr Senesie is Antonio’s elder half-brother from his mother. Sahr played for some clubs like Nottingham Forest and FC Homburg. He also played several levels for the German national team (U18, U19, U20, U21 and the main team). Sahr was a notable player of the German team in the Under-20 World Cup in 2005.

STATS

For Chelsea F.C., Antonio has made appearances in 16 games of the Premier League for a total of 1419minutes and scored one goal. He has a 47% tackle success with 7 tackle wins out of 15. The defender has a good total pass success percentage of 91.3%.’

SALARY AND NET WORTH

Antonio Rudiger’s market value as reported by transfer market as at May 2018 is €40 million. His net worth is said to be about $9.8 million.


Read more here: http://richathletes.com/antonio-rudiger-biography-stats-salary/