Mike Wunderlich (born 25 March 1986) 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 ...

who played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

Career

Early career

Wunderlich began his career playing for the youth academy of

FC Viktoria Köln FC Viktoria Köln is a Football in Germany, German association football club from the city of Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia, that competes in the 3. Liga. History Founded in 1904 as ''FC Germania Kalk'' it is one of the oldest football clubs ...

, until 2004 when he transferred to

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

. After one year playing for the FC's youth academy, he was called up to the reserve team in 2005. In 2006, Wunderlich made his senior debut in

Regionalliga The Regionalliga () is the fourth tier in the German football league system. Until 1974, it was the second tier in Germany. In 1994, it was introduced as the third tier. Upon the creation of the new nationwide 3. Liga in 2008, it became the four ...

match against

VfB Lübeck VfB Lübeck is a German association football club playing in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein in the country's north. In addition to its football side the 1,000 member sports club also has departments for badminton, women's gymnastics, handball, and ...

. He would go on to play fifteen more matches that season. After playing all but two of 1. FC Köln's Regionalliga matches in the first half of the 2008–09 season, he transferred to Rot-Weiss Essen, another Regionalliga team.

Rot-Weiss Essen and FSV Frankfurt

Wunderlich would play one and a half season for Essen, before joining second division club

FSV Frankfurt Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hesse and founded in 1899. FSV Frankfurt also fielded a rather successfu ...

over the summer break in 2010. He seemed to have found his footing in Frankfurt, playing very well in the 2010–11 season. However, after the season, he requested to be sent back (on loan) to the fifth-league tier of Viktoria Köln to help him recover from burn out.

Viktoria Köln

In early 2012 he stated that he was not up to handling the pressures of professional football, and asked to remain with Viktoria Köln. His outstanding performance helped Viktoria Köln to be promoted to the newly formed Regionalliga (fourth league) at the end of the 2011–12 season, and get off to a very good start to the 2012–13 season. Wunderlich was the top scorer of the 2016–17 Regionalliga West season with 29 goals as Viktoria finished as champions, thus qualifying for the promotion play-offs. He scored from the penalty-spot in the first leg of the club play-off tie against

FC Carl Zeiss Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Formed in 1903 and initially associated with the Carl Zeiss AG factory, they were one of the strongest clubs in East Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, winning the DDR-Obe ...

but it was not enough as they lost on away goals after a 3–3 aggregate result. Wunderlich was restricted to just 16 matches during the

2018–19 Regionalliga The 2018–19 Regionalliga is the eleventh season of the Regionalliga, the seventh under the new format, as the fourth tier of the German football league system. Format A new promotion format was used this season. The champions of the Regionall ...

season but contributed 10 goals as Viktoria again secured the Regionalliga West championship and this time won promotion 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 ...

1. FC Kaiserslautern

In June 2021 it was announced Wunderlich would join

side 1. FC Kaiserslautern for the 2021–22 season.

Return to Viktoria Köln

On 14 December 2022, the return of Wunderlich to Viktoria Köln on 1 January 2023 was announced.

Honours

Viktoria Köln * Regionalliga West: 2016–17, 2018–19 *

Middle Rhine Cup The Middle Rhine Cup (German: ''Mittelrheinpokal'') is a German football club Cup competition open to teams from the Lower Rhine region of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The competition is one of the 21 regional cup competitions of German fo ...

: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2017–18 Individual * Regionalliga West top scorer: 2016–17

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wunderlich, Mike 1986 births Living people Footballers from Cologne Men's association football midfielders German men's footballers 1. FC Köln II players Rot-Weiss Essen players FSV Frankfurt players FC Viktoria Köln players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players 3. Liga players