Peter Niemeyer (born 22 November 1983) is a German football manager, executive, and former player. He serves as the sporting director of

Preußen Münster Preußen or Preussen is the German word for Prussia. It also refers to: Ships * ''Preußen'' (ship), windjammer built in 1902 * SMS ''Preußen'' (1873), armored frigate * SMS ''Preußen'' (1903), pre-dreadnought Battleship * , vorpostenboot ...

. During his playing career, he mainly featured 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 ...

, he also operated as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Club career

Although born in Germany, Niemeyer spent the first years of his professional career in the Netherlands, playing for

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese ...

in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

. In January 2007, he joined

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 ...

side

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 ...

, appearing in three league games for the main squad in the 2006–07 season. On 29 September 2007, Niemeyer participated in the 8–1 home crushing of Arminia Bielefeld, scoring the game opener and his first Bundesliga goal. Incidentally, he fell out with an injury in the match after just 33 minutes. In the 2008–09 season, Niemeyer appeared in a career-best 25 official games, including five in the

UEFA 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, clay ...

, as Werder reached

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

against

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was f ...

, where he started in a 2–1

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

loss. On 9 August 2010, Niemeyer moved on loan to Hertha BSC, who were relegated to the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

the season before. On 3 August 2015, Niemeyer signed for recently promoted SV Darmstadt 98 in the Bundesliga on a three-year deal. On 1 September 2018, after the closing of the 2018 summer transfer window, he announced he had not received an offer to renew his contract and would leave the club. He retired from football shortly afterwards.

International career

Niemeyer played six games for the Germany under-21 team under manager

Dieter Eilts Dieter Eilts (born 13 December 1964) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. After retiring as a player, he began a managerial career and also worked for SV Werder Bremen as director of the football academy. Play ...

. In the summer of 2006, he took part in the

2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 15th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. In December 2005, Portugal was selected to host the finals of the competition, which took place from 23 May–4 June 2006. The tournament was ...

in Portugal.

Coaching and executive career

Between 2019 and 2020, Niemeyer was the coach of the FC Twente U21 team. At the same time he worked as the assistant coach of the first team under manager Gonzalo García and functioned as head of the youth department. In July 2020, Niemeyer signed a contract until 2023 as sports director of

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western ...

Career statistics

Honours

Werder Bremen *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

: 2008–09 *

runner-up: 2008–09 Hertha BSC *

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 ...

: 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

References

External links

*
Peter Niemeyer Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Niemeyer, Peter 1983 births Living people People from Hörstel Sportspeople from Münster (region) German footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Association football utility players Eredivisie players FC Twente players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players SV Werder Bremen players Hertha BSC players SV Darmstadt 98 players Germany under-21 international footballers German expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands German expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia FC Twente non-playing staff