Mirko Boland (born 23 April 1987) is a German 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 plays for

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 ...

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 ...

Career

Boland grew up in the

Lower Rhine The Lower Rhine (german: Niederrhein; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the river Rhine) flows from Bonn, Germany, to the North Sea at Hook of Holland, Netherlands (including the Nederrijn or "Nether Rhine" within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta); al ...

region,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

, and played youth football for SV Rees, FC Schalke 04 and

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

. After initially representing the club's reserve team he signed his first professional contract in 2008 with Duisburg. After failing to break into Duisburg's first team during the 2008–09 season, Boland transferred to

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 th ...

club Eintracht Braunschweig during the winter break. Since then he has become a regular starter in Braunschweig's midfield, appearing in over 150 games since 2009. In 2011, he and Eintracht Braunschweig won promotion back into 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 ...

, followed by promotion into the Bundesliga in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

. In July 2018,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Boland joined A-League side

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League Men under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was founded in 2003 to fil ...

on a two-year contract. Boland suffered a hamstring strain on 11 November 2018 in a match against Perth Glory which could sideline him for up to six weeks. In March 2020, it was announced Boland would be return to Germany in summer 2020 to join

, having agreed a two-year contract.

Career statistics

References

External links

* 1987 births Living people People from Wesel Sportspeople from Düsseldorf (region) German footballers Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia Association football midfielders Eintracht Braunschweig players MSV Duisburg players MSV Duisburg II players Adelaide United FC players VfB Lübeck players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players A-League Men players German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate soccer players in Australia {{Germany-footy-midfielder-1980s-stub