Frank Siersleben (born 8 December 1960) is a German former
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 ...
player and manager. He spent the majority of his career with
1. FC Magdeburg
1. FC Magdeburg is a German association football club based in the city of Magdeburg. The club was founded in 1965 and spent all but one season in East Germany top flight, the DDR-Oberliga, winning three championships and seven cup titles. It ...
playing in the
DDR-Oberliga
The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany.
Overview
Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the occupied eastern ...
,
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
's top flight, and won 23 caps for East Germany youth national teams.
Playing career
Siersleben joined the 1. FC Magdeburg youth team in 1974. As a youth he won 19 caps for the East German youth national teams, later winning another four for the U21 team. In 1978, he was nominated as a defender for the Nachwuchsoberliga (a youth competition) side. At age 18 he was made part of the
DDR-Oberliga
The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany.
Overview
Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the occupied eastern ...
squad for the 1979–80 DDR-Oberliga season, playing in his first match on 25 August 1979 as a leftback against BSG Chemie Leipzig. During his first Oberliga season he played in ten matches. In the following season Siersleben played in the Nachwuchsoberliga exclusively, having begun studying for a Diplomsportlehrer degree in 1980. Only in the
1983–84 DDR-Oberliga
The 1983–84 DDR-Oberliga was the 35th season of the DDR-Oberliga, the first tier of league football in East Germany.
The league was contested by fourteen teams. BFC Dynamo won the championship, the club's sixth of ten consecutive East German ch ...
season could he establish himself in the Oberliga squad, playing in 16 matches.
Siersleben played six matches on European level for 1. FC Magdeburg. His first match came in the First Round of the
1986–87 UEFA Cup
The 1986–87 UEFA Cup was the 16th season of the UEFA Cup, a football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for clubs affiliated to its member associations. The competition was won by IFK Göteborg of Sweden, ...
against
Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...
on 17 September 1986. He played in the return leg as well. In the 1990-91 season he played in four more UEFA Cup matches, the last in the history of the club.
From 1984 onwards Siersleben was an Oberliga regular, never playing in less than 20 matches per season until the end of the DDR-Oberliga in 1991. After his club had missed out on qualifying for 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 ...
in 1991, Siersleben spent three seasons in the then third-tier
NOFV-Oberliga
The NOFV- Oberliga is a division at step 5 of the German football league system. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, it became the successor of the DDR-Oberliga, and functions today as a 5th division in the former territory of East Germany and the ...
until 1994. In this division he played in 98 league matches, no longer as a defender, but as a midfielder. In his final season with the club, Siersleben was made team captain. After the
Saxony-Anhalt Cup
The Saxony-Anhalt Cup (German: Landespokal Sachsen-Anhalt) is an annual football cup competition in Saxony-Anhalt. The Football Association of Saxony-Anhalt (German: Fußballverband Sachsen-Anhalts, short: FSA) is its governing body. All non-prof ...
final against
Hallescher FC
Hallescher FC, sometimes still called by its former popular name Chemie Halle, is a German association football club based in Halle an der Saale, Saxony-Anhalt. The club currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third highest level in the German footb ...
, he ended his career with 1. FC Magdeburg. All in all he had played in 299 league matches, 42 national cup matches and 6 UEFA Cup matches. Aside from his 12 league goals, Siersleben scored twice in the national cup competitions.
When 1. FC Magdeburg did not qualify for the new Regionalliga Nordost in 1994, Siersleben followed former teammate Rolf Döbbelin who was now manager of Fortuna Magdeburg. With Fortuna he won promotion to the fourth-tier NOFV-Oberliga. He stayed at Fortuna until 1999, leaving for lower league side MSV Börde where he ended his playing career in 2000.
Managerial career
After ending his playing career, Siersleben took over the manager position at his last club MSV Börde. In 2003, he moved back to 1. FC Magdeburg where he led the reserve team from the then eight-tier Stadtklasse to the then fifth-tier