Martin Lanig (born 11 July 1984) 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, rugb ...

who played 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 boundari ...

Career

Youth squads

Lanig began playing for SV Königshofen. Later he played for TSV Tauberbischofsheim and

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. Bunde ...

FV Lauda, Hoffenheim, Greuther Fürth

Lanig started his career with lower division team FV Lauda in 2002. The next year he moved to the Regionalliga Süd club

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft 1899 Hoffenheim e.V., or simply TSG 1899 Hoffenheim or just Hoffenheim () is a German professional football club based in Hoffenheim, a village of Sinsheim municipality, Baden-Württemberg. Originally founded in 18 ...

and in 2006 he signed with 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 ...

club SpVgg Greuther Fürth.

VfB Stuttgart, FC Köln, Eintracht Frankfurt

In July 2008, he transferred from Greuther Fürth to

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB S ...

, where he had the opportunity to play for the first time in 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 footb ...

. Lanig scored his first goal for VfB Stuttgart on 5 October 2008 against

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

. In July 2010, he moved 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 Ball ...

and two years later he transferred to Eintracht Frankfurt.

APOEL

On 23 January 2015, aged 30, Lanig moved abroad for the first time and signed an 18-month contract with Cypriot club

APOEL FC APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

. He made his debut on 31 January 2015, playing the full 90 minutes in APOEL's 0–1 away victory against

Nea Salamina Nea Salamis Famagusta or Nea Salamina Famagusta ( el, Νέα Σαλαμίνα Αμμοχώστου) is a Cypriot sports club based in Ammochostos (also known by its romanized name, Famagusta), Cyprus. The club is named after Salamis (or Salam ...

for the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

. He scored his first official goal for APOEL on 7 February 2015, opening the scoreline in his team's 4–0 home win over

Ethnikos Achna Ethnikos Achna Football Club ( el, Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Εθνικός Άχνας), commonly known as Ethnikos Achna, or simply Ethnikos, is a Cypriot football club based in the village of Achna. Founded in 1968, the club curren ...

for the

. In his first season at APOEL, Lanig managed to win his first two career titles, as his team won both the Cypriot

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

and the

cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cl ...

. On 16 June 2015, APOEL announced that Lanig's contract with the club was terminated by mutual consent, as the player wanted to return to Germany. APOEL was the last stop of his playing career, as a few months later, he announced his retirement from football at age 31, due to multiple and serious injuries.

Career statistics

Honours

APOEL *

: 2014–15 *

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup () is the main cup competition in Cypriot football, run by the Cyprus Football Association (CFA). It began in 1934, the same season with the Cypriot Championship. It is the second most important competition for Cypriot club tea ...

: 2014–15

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lanig, Martin 1984 births Living people German footballers Association football midfielders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Cypriot First Division players SpVgg Greuther Fürth players TSG 1899 Hoffenheim II players TSG 1899 Hoffenheim players VfB Stuttgart II players VfB Stuttgart players 1. FC Köln players Eintracht Frankfurt players APOEL FC players German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in Cyprus People from Bad Mergentheim Sportspeople from Stuttgart (region) Footballers from Baden-Württemberg