Michael Kügler (born 3 September 1981 in Olpe) is a German

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 is a player-manager for SV Dahl-Friedrichsthal.

Career

In his early youth, he played for SV Dahl-Friedrichsthal and SpVg Olpe before moving to the youth department of

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 ...

in 1995. Kügler was discovered by scouts from Dortmund after a rather successful time at SpVg Olpe and brought into the youth department of the Dortmund club. He won the German championship with the B-juniors in 1998. In 2000, he was promoted to the reserve team where he played for two seasons. Kügler then moved to

1. FC Nürnberg 1. Fußball-Club Nürnberg Verein für Leibesübungen e. V., often called 1. FC Nürnberg (, en, 1. Football Club Nuremberg) or simply Nürnberg, is a German association football club in Nuremberg, Bavaria, who currently compete in the 2. Bund ...

on a free transfer and played two

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 ...

games for the club in its relegation season. In the following season in the

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 ...

, he only made one appearance due to injuries and he then left FCN in summer 2004.

Later career

After six years at

1. FC Kaan-Marienborn 1. FC Kaan-Marienborn is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Siegen, that competes in Regionalliga West. History The club was founded on 1 July 2007, taking over the football department of TuS 1886 Kaan-Marienborn, ...

, he moved to SV Ottfingen in the summer 2016. At the end of the year, he was announced as the club's new head coach. Beside that, he also played a few games for the club's reserve team. On 4 February 2018, Kügler was replaced by Sascha Lichtenthäler. Two years later he moved to

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 cl ...

in the Regionalliga Nord on a free transfer. He played 59 league games and two DFB-Pokal games. From the 2006–07 season, he was under contract with Dynamo Dresden. Initially, however, he was hardly used there due to serious knee injuries. On 28 August 2009, the contract with Dynamo Dresden, which originally ran until the end of June 2010, was terminated by mutual agreement. Kügler then moved to

Sportfreunde Lotte VfL Sportfreunde Lotte is a German association football club from Lotte, North Rhine-Westphalia. The football team is part of a sports club with approximately 1400 members and departments for handball, walking, gymnastics, and swimming, as well ...

. In the summer 2018, Kügler returned to his first club, SV Dahl-Friedrichsthal, as a player and sporting director. At the end of 2018, he was appointed player-head coach of the club on an interim basis until the end of the season. Kügler still also maintained his duties as a sporting director. From the 2020–21 season, he would function as a player-assistant coach.

References

1981 births Living people People from Olpe, Germany Footballers from Arnsberg (region) German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Borussia Dortmund II players 1. FC Nürnberg players Dynamo Dresden players Sportfreunde Lotte players 1. FC Kaan-Marienborn players German football managers {{germany-footy-midfielder-1980s-stub