Frank Greiner (born 3 July 1966) is a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and a former player.

Playing career

Frank Greiner was born in

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

on 3 July 1996. Beginning in 1987, he played professional football for sixteen years, almost exclusively in the

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 ...

. He played just one season in the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

, with 1. FC Kaiserslautern, playing 28 matches as the club were promoted. Greiner played for 1. FC Nürnberg until 1988, when he moved to

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

and established himself as a regular player. Köln reached the final of the

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 ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, ultimately losing to

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

. Playing for Köln in February 1994, Greiner was headbutted by

Altin Rraklli Altin Rraklli (born 17 July 1970) is an Albanian football coach and former player who played as a forward. Most of his professional career was spent in Germany, where he played for five clubs in both major levels of football, mainly SC Freibur ...

. He played for Köln for seven years, including 15 games in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

. In 1995, he moved to 1. FC Kaiserslautern, winning the DFB-Pokal in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

. He moved to

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

in September 1997, the same season that Kaiserslautern won the German title. He remained with Wolfsburg until his playing career finished in 2003.

Coaching career

Greiner was the co-assistant of MTV Gifhorn from 2006 until 2008, during which time he made a comeback as a player due to an injury crisis. In January 2013, he rejoined Wolfsburg teammate

Dorinel Munteanu Dorinel Ionel Munteanu (; born 25 June 1968) is a Romanian retired professional footballer and manager. A former midfielder, Munteanu is the most capped Romanian player of all time, with a total of 134 appearances and 16 goals. He played in two ...

as assistant coach of

Russian Football National League The Russian First League (russian: Первая лига, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division (russian: Первый дивизион) and Russian Football National League (FNL) (russian: Первенство Футбольн� ...

side

FC Mordovia Saransk FC Mordovia Saransk (russian: ФК Мордовия Саранск) is a Russian association football club from Saransk, Republic of Mordovia. In its current state it was formed in 2005, through the merge of Biokhimik-Mordovia and Lisma-Mordovia ...

.Greiner und Munteanu: Zwei Ex-VfLer in Russland
waz-online.de (in German) He joined the staff at the Wolfsburg academy in February 2014.

Honours

1. FC Köln *

runner-up: 1990–91 1. FC Kaiserlautern * DFB-Pokal: 1995–96 *

: 1997–98

References

External links

* 1966 births Living people Men's association football midfielders German men's footballers German football managers 1. FC Nürnberg players 1. FC Köln players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players VfL Wolfsburg players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Sportspeople from Coburg Footballers from Upper Franconia West German men's footballers {{germany-footy-midfielder-1960s-stub