Konstantin Viktorovich Rausch (russian: Константин Викторович Рауш, german: Konstantin Rausch; born 15 March 1990) is a former 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 played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. Born in Germany, he represented the country at various youth levels before switching allegiance to the Russia senior national team.

Early life

Rausch was born in Kozhevnikovo,

Tomsk Oblast Tomsk Oblast (russian: То́мская о́бласть, ''Tomskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It lies in the southeastern West Siberian Plain, in the southwest of the Siberian Federal District. Its administrative ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

ethnic German , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

parents. His family emigrated to Germany from Russia in 1996. His first friend in Germany could not pronounce "Konstantin" and instead called him "Kocka", a nickname still used by his teammates and coaches. Rausch is

dual citizen Dual or Duals may refer to: Paired/two things * Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another ** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality *** see more cases in :Duality theories * Dual (grammatical ...

of Russia and Germany.

Club career

Early career

Shortly after moving to Germany, Rausch started playing football at the local club, TuS

Lachendorf Lachendorf (West Low German: ''Lachendörp'') is a municipality in the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 10 km east of Celle. Lachendorf is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde ("collective municipality ...

. At the age of twelve he received an offer to join the youth team of

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 ...

side Hannover 96. He decided he was not mature enough for such a big club and instead joined another local side, SV Nienhagen. He finally joined Hannover two years later, rejecting offers from

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, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

and

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

Hannover 96

When 96 first choice left full back

Michael Tarnat Michael Tarnat (born 27 October 1969) is a German former professional footballer, currently employed by Bayern Munich as the leader of the U12–U16 youth teams. A left-footed full-back, he was also employed as a left wingback and occasionall ...

and his replacement

Christian Schulz Christian Schulz (born 1 April 1983) is a German former professional footballer who played as a centre back or left-back. Club career Schulz joined Werder Bremen in 1995 at the age of twelve and stepped up to the reserve side, playing in the ...

were injured, Rausch debuted 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 S ...

on 30 March 2008. He was aged 18, which made him the youngest player ever, to appear in Hannover's first squad. Rausch had a good game, but had to be substituted at half time after straining a muscle. Two days later, he signed his first professional contract, running until 2010. While Hannover favoured a longer contract, Rausch did not want to tie himself for too long.

VfB Stuttgart

After the end of his contract with Hannover on 1 July 2013, Rausch moved to VfB Stuttgart on a free transfer. On 5 May 2013, Konstantin Rausch signed a contract until June 2016 with VfB Stuttgart.

Darmstadt 98

On 6 July 2015, Rausch signed a one-year contract with SV Darmstadt 98.

Dynamo Moscow

On 21 January 2018, he signed with Russian club

FC Dynamo Moscow FC Dynamo Moscow (''FC Dynamo Moskva'', russian: Дина́мо Москва́ ) is a Russian football club based in Moscow. Dynamo returned to the Russian Premier League for the 2017–18 season after one season in the second-tier Russian Foot ...

. On 19 December 2020, Dynamo announced that he left the club as his contract expired.

1. FC Nürnberg and retirement

In summer 2022, after a season with 1. FC Nürnberg, Rausch retired from professional football.

International career

International youth teams

Rausch played for various German youth teams as a left full back or wing back, accumulating more than 30 appearances. His biggest success was a bronze medal at the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup, where he started in every game except for one, which he missed following a red card. After the tournament, he was awarded a

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 tea ...

in silver as the second most promising German football player of his age.

Senior team

In March 2011, Russian media quoted Rausch to be interested in playing for the Russia national team, but that the Russian Football Union never approached him. On 16 August 2017, he was called up for Russia for a friendly game against a club side

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

, which did not count as a full international match. He made his full international debut on 7 October 2017 in a friendly game against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. On 11 May 2018, he was included in Russia's extended 2018 FIFA World Cup squad. He was not included in the finalized World Cup squad due to back injury.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Germany U17 *

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fédération ...

: third place 2007 Individual *

: 2007 in Silver (Category U17) *

: 2009 in Silver (Category U19)

References

External links

Konstantin Rausch
at the official German U18 page * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rausch, Konstantin Living people 1990 births Russian people of German descent German people of Russian descent Russian emigrants to Germany Citizens of Germany through descent Sportspeople from Tomsk Oblast Russian footballers German footballers Association football midfielders Association football fullbacks Russia international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Germany youth international footballers Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Oberliga (football) players Russian Premier League players Hannover 96 II players Hannover 96 players VfB Stuttgart players VfB Stuttgart II players SV Darmstadt 98 players 1. FC Köln players FC Dynamo Moscow players 1. FC Nürnberg players 1. FC Nürnberg II players