Konstantin Kerschbaumer (born 1 July 1992) 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 le ...

who plays for Austrian club

Wolfsberger AC Wolfsberger AC, commonly referred to as Wolfsberg or simply WAC, is an Austrian association football club from Wolfsberg, Carinthia, who currently play in the Austrian Bundesliga. Between the 2007–08 and 2011–12 seasons, Wolfsberger AC enter ...

as a

central midfielder 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 ...

. Kerschbaumer came to prominence in his homeland with SKN St. Pölten, from whom he transferred to top-flight club Admira Wacker Mödling in 2015. He subsequently played in England and Germany, before returning to Austria with Wolfsberger AC in 2022. Kerschbaumer won 20 international caps for

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

at youth level.

Club career

Rapid Wien

, Kerschbaumer began his career in

with local clubs FC Tulln and AKA St. Pölten, progressing to help the latter club to the 2008–09 Jugendliga U19 title. He signed 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 SK Rapid Wien in 2009, making 20 appearances and scoring five goals for the U19 team and progressing to the reserves, scoring two goals in four late-season Regionalliga Ost appearances. He was a reserve team regular during the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season, making 29 appearances and scoring four goals. Kerschbaumer joined Erste Liga club

First Vienna First Vienna FC is an Austrian association football club based in the Döbling district of Vienna. Established on 22 August 1894, it is the country's oldest team and has played a notable role in the history of the game there. It is familiarly k ...

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

for the duration of the 2011–12 season, making 33 appearances and scoring five goals. After also spending the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season away on loan, Kerschbaumer departed the Weststadion during the 2013 off-season.

SKN St. Pölten

On 10 July 2012, Kerschbaumer joined Erste Liga club SKN St. Pölten on a season-long loan. He made 34 appearances and scored six goals during the

season and joined the club on a permanent contract after the campaign. He improved his tally to seven goals in a successful 2013–14 season for the club, in which they finished fourth in the league to qualify for 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 ...

. Kerschbaumer played in every match of St. Pölten's run to the

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

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, which ended in a 4–2 defeat to Red Bull Salzburg. Kerschbaumer made 27 appearances and scored three goals during the first half of the 2014–15 season, before departing the club in January 2015. Kerschbaumer made 100 appearances and scored 16 goals during his two and a half years at the NV Arena.

Admira Wacker Mödling

Kerschbaumer signed for Bundesliga strugglers Admira Wacker Mödling on 20 January 2015 on a -year contract. He made 16 appearances and scored one goal during the second half of the 2014–15 season, helping the club to finish above the relegation place. He departed the club in late June.

Brentford

On 1 July 2015, Kerschbaumer moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to sign for Championship club

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

on a four-year contract for an undisclosed fee and became the first Austrian to sign for the

Griffin Park Griffin Park was a football ground in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow, England. It was the home ground of Brentford F.C. from its opening in September 1904 to August 2020. The ground is in a predominantly residential area and was ...

club. He began his Bees career as a starter under

Marinus Dijkhuizen Marinus Dijkhuizen (born 4 January 1972) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who manages Excelsior. As a player, he had notable spells in his native Netherlands with Excelsior, SC Cambuur and TOP Oss. He retired in 2009 a ...

, before being dropped to the bench by Dijkhuizen's replacement

Lee Carsley Lee Kevin Carsley (born 28 February 1974) is a former professional footballer who is head coach of England U21. In a playing career lasting 17 years, he is best remembered for his spells as a midfielder in the Premier League and Football Leagu ...

in early October. Despite utilising him as a substitute regularly, Carsley admitted in early November that Kerschbaumer "needs a lot of coaching. He runs as fast as he can everywhere without being effective". He alternated between starting roles and the bench through to the end of the 2015–16 season, making 31 appearances. Kerschbaumer's 6 assists was the second-highest at the club, after Alan Judge. Kerschbaumer made two early 2016–17 season appearances before falling out of favour with head coach

Dean Smith Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hi ...

and dropping out of the squad in mid-September 2016. On 5 February 2017, while making just his seventh appearance of the season, Kerschbaumer finally scored his first goal for the club in a 3–3 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion. Injury to

Josh McEachran Joshua Mark McEachran (born 1 March 1993) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Milton Keynes Dons F.C., Milton Keynes Dons. McEachran is a product of the Chelsea F.C. Academy, Chelsea a ...

later that month allowed Kerschbaumer to break into the starting lineup and he started the majority of the remaining matches of the season. He finished the 2016–17 season with 21 appearances and one goal. In late June 2017, Kerschbaumer agreed a one-year extension option to his contract and joined

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 ...

club

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

on a season-long loan. He made 32 appearances and scored eight goals during the 2017–18 season, in which the Blues narrowly missed out on the

promotion playoff Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or ...

place. Kerschbaumer departed Brentford on 1 June 2018 and made 52 appearances and scored one goal during two seasons as a first team player at Griffin Park.

FC Ingolstadt 04

On 1 June 2018, Kerschbaumer joined 2. Bundesliga club FC Ingolstadt 04 on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee (reported to be £900,000), effective 1 July 2018. He made 29 appearances and scored four goals during a disastrous 2018–19 season, which culminated in relegation to the

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

. Kerschbaumer departed the club in September 2019.

1. FC Heidenheim

On 2 September 2019, Kerschbaumer moved back up to the 2. Bundesliga to sign a three-year contract with

1. FC Heidenheim 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 is a German association football club from the city of Heidenheim, Baden-Württemberg. History The current day club was formed in 2007 through the separation of the football section from parent association ''Heidenheimer ...

, for an undisclosed fee. He made 26 appearances and scored three goals during a 2019–20 season which ended with defeat in the

promotion play-off. Following a mid-table

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 ...

season in which he made 19 appearances and scored one goal, a torn

muscle fibre A muscle cell is also known as a myocyte when referring to either a cardiac muscle cell (cardiomyocyte), or a smooth muscle cell as these are both small cells. A skeletal muscle cell is long and threadlike with many nuclei and is called a muscl ...

interrupted the early months of Kerschbaumer's 2021–22 season. After his return, he made just five appearances and late in the season, it was announced that Kerschbaumer would be released when his contract expired in June 2022. Kerschbaumer ended his three-season spell at the Voith-Arena with 50 appearances and four goals.

Wolfsberger AC

On 23 May 2022, Kerschbaumer signed a three-year contract with Austrian Bundesliga club

on a free transfer, effective 1 July 2022. He made 34 appearances and scored three goals during a

2022–23 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 ...

season which culminated with defeat in the Europa Conference League play-offs.

International career

Kerschbaumer won 20 caps and scored two goals for

from U16 to U19 level between 2007 and 2010. He was a part of the U17 team which won the 2008 U17 Toto Cup.

Style of play

Kerschbaumer was described by Marinus Dijkhuizen as a "box to box" midfielder. In June 2017, Brentford goalkeeper Dan Bentley stated that Kerschbaumer was the best finisher at the club.

Personal life

Kerschbaumer's father Toni is a youth coach at FC Tulln.

Career statistics

Honours

Austria U17 * U17 Toto Cup: 2008

References

External links

* * *
Konstantin Kerschbaumer
at firstviennafc.at
Konstantin Kerschbaumer
at 2liga.at {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerschbaumer, Konstantin 1992 births Living people People from Tulln an der Donau Austrian men's footballers SK Rapid Wien players First Vienna FC players SKN St. Pölten players FC Admira Wacker Mödling players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Brentford F.C. players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Men's association football midfielders Austria men's youth international footballers English Football League players Arminia Bielefeld players 1. FC Heidenheim players 2. Bundesliga players Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany FC Ingolstadt 04 players Wolfsberger AC players Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Footballers from Lower Austria