Markus Brzenska (born 25 May 1984) is a German

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 ...

coach and former player.

Early life

Markus Brzenska's parents, Joachim and Halina, and his older brothers, Sebastian and Marcin, were originally from the

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...

n town of

Bytom Bytom (Polish pronunciation: ; Silesian: ''Bytōm, Bytōń'', german: Beuthen O.S.) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland, the city is 7 km northwest of Katowice, the regional capital ...

(German Beuthen). They immigrated to Germany as

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

(''Aussiedler''), settling in

Lünen Lünen is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located north of Dortmund, on both banks of the River Lippe. It is the largest town of the Unna district and part of the Ruhr Area. In 2009 a biogas plant was built to provide electric p ...

near

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

, where Markus was born a few weeks after their arrival.

Club career

Borussia Dortmund

Without any top level match experience, he was included in the starting line-up by coach

Matthias Sammer Matthias Sammer (; born 5 September 1967) is a German football official and former player and coach. He played as a defensive midfielder and later in his career as a sweeper. With Borussia Dortmund as a player, Sammer won the Bundesliga and D ...

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

's match against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

on 9 November 2003. His debut ended in a send-off during the first half. In 2004, when coach

Bert van Marwijk Lambertus van Marwijk (; born 19 May 1952) is a Dutch football manager who was recently the head coach of the United Arab Emirates national team. As a player, he played for the Go Ahead Eagles, AZ, MVV and Fortuna Sittard amongst other clubs a ...

arrived, such like some other players with whom the coach was less familiar, Brzenska's ability was overlooked. Eventually, his effort turned things around. He returned to the first team squad during the first half of the 2004–05 season and established his place in the starting line-up since then.

Energie Cottbus

During the 2008–09 season, he was loaned to

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

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jers ...

. At the end of the loan, Duisburg were unable to pay the transfer fee that Dortmund were asking for, so he returned to

who then sold him 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 ...

International career

His family comes from Poland so he is eligible to play for Poland. In October 2010 he declared his intention to play for the Poland national team. He played 15 games for the Germany U21 national team.

References

External links

* 1984 births Living people People from Lünen Sportspeople from Arnsberg (region) German footballers German people of Polish descent Germany under-21 international footballers Borussia Dortmund players Borussia Dortmund II players MSV Duisburg players FC Energie Cottbus players FC Viktoria Köln players Association football defenders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players FC Viktoria Köln managers Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia {{germany-footy-defender-1980s-stub