Ansgar Knauff (born 10 January 2002) is a German

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

, on loan from

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

Early life

Knauff was born in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

to a German mother and

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

ian father, but raised by his single mother.

Club career

He began his youth career at hometown club SVG Göttingen, before joining

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

's youth academy in 2015. A year later, he joined the Borussia Dortmund youth team, in which he played in the

2019–20 UEFA Youth League The 2019–20 UEFA Youth League was the seventh season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. Following the round of 16, the competition was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in ...

. In September 2020, he made his debut for

Borussia Dortmund II Borussia Dortmund II are the reserve team of Borussia Dortmund. They play in the 3. Liga, at Stadion Rote Erde. Until 2005, the team played as Borussia Dortmund Amateure. History From Kreisliga to Oberliga (Until 1997) The second team of Boruss ...

in the fourth division of German football. During the 2020–21

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western ...

season, he appeared in 28 games for Dortmund II, scoring 9 goals.

Borussia Dortmund

Knauff signed his first professional contract with

on 25 November 2020, lasting until 2023. He made his first team debut on 8 December, coming on as a substitute in the 83rd minute for

Thorgan Hazard Thorgan Ganael Francis Hazard (born 29 March 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder and winger for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and the Belgium national team. He is the younger brother of Eden and ...

in the

2020–21 UEFA Champions League The 2020–21 UEFA Champions League was the 66th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 29th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Chelsea defeat ...

match against

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

. The away match finished as a 2–1 win for Dortmund. On 20 March 2021, he made his first appearance in the

, coming on for

Thomas Meunier Thomas André A. Meunier (born 12 September 1991) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club Borussia Dortmund and the Belgium national team. Club career Virton Born in Sainte-Ode, Belgium, Meunier began playin ...

in the 80th minute and providing the assist for a late equalizer in a 2-2 draw against

Köln Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...

. He scored his first Bundesliga goal on 10 April, scoring the winning goal in a 3–2 victory against

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stu ...

Eintracht Frankfurt

On 20 January 2022, Knauff joined

on an eighteen-month loan deal.

Sebastian Kehl Sebastian Walter Kehl (; born 13 February 1980) is a German former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He is currently the Sporting Director of Borussia Dortmund. He amassed Bundesliga totals of 314 games and 24 goals o ...

, Dortmund's head of playing department, explained the move by stating that "He approached us to state his wish to get more playing time on loan. We would like to offer him this chance to continue his development at a high level." Knauff scored his first goal for Eintracht on 5 March in a 4–1 victory against

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charl ...

. In the knockout phase of the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

campaign, he was an undisputed starter, did not miss a single minute of playing time, and scored important goals against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

in the quarter-final and

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

in the semifinal. On 18 May 2022, he appeared as a starting player in the

2022 UEFA Europa League Final The 2022 UEFA Europa League Final was the final match of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League, the 51st season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 13th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA E ...

against

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

and won the Europa League trophy with his club after the penalty shoot-out. For his performance during the 2021–22 Europa League season, Knauff was awarded the ''Young Player of the Season'' award by UEFA.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Eintracht Frankfurt *

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

: 2021–22 Individual *

Fritz Walter Medal The Fritz Walter Medal is a series of annual awards given by the German Football Association to youth footballers in Germany. First awarded in 2005, it is named in honour of Fritz Walter, captain of West Germany's 1954 FIFA World Cup-winning team ...

U19 Silver:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Young Player of the Season: 2021–22

References

External links

* * * *
Ansgar Knauff
at fussballdaten.de (in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Knauff, Ansgar 2002 births Living people Sportspeople from Göttingen Footballers from Lower Saxony German footballers Germany youth international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers German sportspeople of Ghanaian descent Association football wingers Borussia Dortmund II players Borussia Dortmund players Eintracht Frankfurt players Bundesliga players UEFA Europa League winning players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players