Lars Jungnickel (born 31 August 1981) is a German 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 le ...

. Early in his career, he played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

and later as a

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 ...

, most notably for

Dynamo Dresden Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V., commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, are a German association football club based in Dresden, Saxony.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. Kasse ...

Career

Jungnickel was born in

Dohna Dohna is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, Saxony, Germany. It is located south of Heidenau, in the Müglitz valley and lies at the northeastern foot of the Eastern Ore Mountains. It is accessed by the Pirna interchange ...

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 ...

. He had two spells with Dynamo Dresden. He first joined the club as a child in 1987, and made his debut in the

Regionalliga Nordost The Regionalliga Nordost is the fourth tier of German football in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. These comprise the states of former East Germany as well as West Berlin. It i ...

twelve years later. He spent two seasons in Dynamo's first-team, playing as a striker, and despite the club's relegation to, and subsequent failure to get promoted from, the

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 ...

, he showed promise, and in July 2001 he earned a move to

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus ( Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons i ...

of 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 ...

, along with teammate Silvio Schröter. Jungnickel only made three appearances in his first season with Cottbus – his debut came in March 2003 when he replaced

Thomas Reichenberger Thomas Reichenberger (born 14 October 1974) is a German former professional footballer who played as a striker. Honours * Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a profe ...

in a 2–0 win over

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

– but made 23 appearances, mostly as a substitute, the next year, as the team finished bottom of the league. He missed much of the following season, but featured more regularly in the next two

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 ...

seasons, the latter of which saw the club promoted in third place. Back in the Bundesliga, Jungnickel only saw 20 minutes of action all season, and was released by Cottbus in July 2007. Jungnickel then returned to Dynamo Dresden, now in the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord ( en, Regional League North) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regional ...

, and helped the club qualify for the 3. Liga in his first season back. He has been a regular first-team player at the club ever since, usually employed as a

defensive 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 ...

. He helped Dynamo earn promotion to the 2. Bundesliga in 2011, but missed most of the following season, due to injury. He retired at the end of the 2012–13 season, in which he had not made any first-team appearances. Jungnickel was named in Germany's squad for the

2001 FIFA World Youth Championship The 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Argentina between 17 June and 8 July 2001. The 2001 championship was the 13th contested. The tournament took part in six cities, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Mendoza, Rosario, Salta, and Mar de ...

, and won four caps for the under-21 team in 2002, scoring one goal.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jungnickel, Lars 1981 births Living people People from Dohna German footballers Footballers from Saxony Association football forwards Association football midfielders Germany under-21 international footballers Germany youth international footballers Dynamo Dresden players Dynamo Dresden II players FC Energie Cottbus players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players