FC Red Bull Salzburg's goalkeeper Timo Ochs was once one of the biggest goalkeeping talents in Germany. Since joining Salzburg to play in the tipp3-Bundesliga powered by T-Mobil league in Austria, he has virtually disappeared. The days in which Ochs was considered a legitamite prospect for the German national team are long gone. Young German goalkeepers like Manuel Neuer, Michael Rensing, and René Adler have taken the spot light away from Timo Ochs.
Timo Ochs' career started promising, he played an outstanding season for VfL Osnabrück in 2003-04 where he managed to take over from Sven Scheuer. Timo Ochs was regarded the best goalie of the season even though Osnabrück got relegated to the Regionalliga that year. After the relegation Ochs left the club, to join TSV 1860 Munich. 1860 was very ambitious that year and planned to return to the Bundesliga. The club, however, started badly into the 2004-05 season. Then Michael Hofmann, 1860 number 1 goalie, got hurt and Ochs took over. The club made a run for promotion that season but narrowly missed the target on the last day of the season. Despite the disappointment, Ochs was named the 1860 player of the year by the 1860 fans.
What followed was another disappointing season, in which the club again failed to reach promotion to the Bundesliga. In 2006 Ochs moved on to Salzburg. Austria Salzburg where just bought by Red Bull, and the club brought in Lothar Matthäus and Giovanni Trapattoni as coaches. Red Bull spent enormous amount of money on players and infrastructure. The goal was to establish the club permanently in the Champions League. Ochs was tempted into believing that such a plan could be made succesful in the Mozart City. The club, however, has failed to reach the group stage of the Champions League. What is even worse Salzburg has not even managed to be a regular in the Uefa-Cup. The club has merely become a semi-retirement spot for overaged "stars." So Ochs has been forgotten, playing in the forgotten Austrian Bundesliga. There is hope though, the career of Ochs is similar to one of a so called Robert Enke.
Enke traveled the football globe, playing in Spain, Portugal, and Turkey before becoming a star in Hannover. Perhaps the career of Ochs will take off once again, but the player needs to leave Austria in order to do so. Perhaps a return to the Bundesliga can bring back the Mini-Kahn and restore the good name of Timo Ochs.
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