Kevin Friesenbichler (born 6 May 1994) is an Austrian professional

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 ...

who plays as a forward for Polish club Lechia Gdańsk.

Club career

Born in

Weiz Weiz () is a town in the eastern part of the Austrian state of Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the sec ...

, Friesenbichler joined local team

SC Weiz SC Weiz is an Austrian association football club founded in 1924 and finished in 13th position in the Austrian Regional League Central The Austrian Regional League Central (german: Regionalliga Mitte) is a third-tier division of Austrian foo ...

at the age of five before joining Austrian giants

FK Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (; known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria (German: Österreich) in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the mos ...

in 2008. After a year he moved on to Admira Mödling and in 2010, he joined German heavyweight Bayern Munich. For the then 16-year-old Bayern even paid a transfer fee believed to be €500,000. He enjoyed a debut

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

for their U17 side and spent subsequently three years playing for their U19 squad, scoring 27 goals in 37 appearances. His impressive form lead him to be promoted to

FC Bayern Munich II FC Bayern Munich II (''FC Bayern Munich Amateure'' until 2005) are the reserve team of German association football club FC Bayern Munich, they currently play in the Regionalliga Bayern. In 2010–11 they played in the 3. Liga, having qualified ...

for the

2012–13 Regionalliga The 2012–13 Regionalliga was the fifth season of the Regionalliga as the fourth tier of the German football league system. From this season onwards, the structure of this tier has changed. The three division format administrated by the German FA ...

season. However, it was the 2013–14 season that he arrived at the scene, scoring 15 goals in 22 appearances as Bayern Munich II topped their table. On 22 May 2014, Friesenbichler signed a four-year deal with Portuguese champions Benfica on a free transfer. On 26 July 2014, he scored his first goal for Benfica B on his debut in a friendly match win (4–3) against

Ajax II Ajax was a champion Australian bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire, who won 18 consecutive races before he was defeated at the odds of 40/1 on, causing a huge racing sensation. He had wins from 5 furlongs (1,000 metres) to 1½ m ...

. On 22 August 2014, after not even two months at Benfica, Friesenbichler was loaned to Polish side Lechia Gdańsk on a season-long deal. According to his father he wouldn't have had many chances to play for Benfica and was therefore looking to pick up match practice. He made his professional debut on 31 August 2014 against Ruch Chorzów (3–3), also scoring his first goal in process. On 22 July 2015, Friesenbichler was loaned to Austria Wien for one season. Exactly a year later, the loan was extended by a further season. On 1 July 2017, he signed a permanent deal with the Austrian club. On 2 July 2019, Friesenbichler joined

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its football section. History Foundation to WW2 The c ...

on a two-year deal.

International career

On 14 August 2009, Friesenbichler made his debut for Austria U16 in an 8–0 victory over Liechtenstein U16, scoring 2 goals. He made his debut in competitive youth level international football on 18 November 2013 against Hungary in a 4–2 victory, in which he scored 1 goal.

Career statistics

*1.Includes Regionalliga promotion playoffs and Ekstraklasa playoffs.

References

External links

Kevin Friesenbichler
at kicker.de * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Friesenbichler, Kevin 1994 births Living people Footballers from Styria People from Weiz District Austrian footballers Austria youth international footballers Austria under-21 international footballers Association football forwards FC Bayern Munich II players S.L. Benfica footballers Lechia Gdańsk players Wolfsberger AC players FK Austria Wien players VfL Osnabrück players SK Sturm Graz players FK RFS players Regionalliga players Ekstraklasa players III liga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Latvian Higher League players Austrian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Portugal Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Poland Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate footballers in Latvia Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Latvia