Rafael Czichos (born 14 May 1990) 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 as a centre-back for Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire.

Career

Born in Jeddah,

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

while his father worked there, Czichos began his career at TSV Ottersberg and joined

VfL Wolfsburg II VfL Wolfsburg II was a German association football team from the city of Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. It is the reserve team of VfL Wolfsburg. The team's greatest success has been two league championships in the tier four Regionalliga Nord in 2013� ...

in 2010. In 2012, he signed with then

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 ...

side Rot-Weiss Erfurt. After signing with

Holstein Kiel Kieler Sportvereinigung Holstein von 1900 e.V., simply as KSV Holstein or Kieler SV Holstein, commonly known as Holstein Kiel (), is a German association football and sports club based in the city of Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein. From the 1900s thro ...

, Czichos first played 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 ...

when the team won promotion in 2017. However, Kiel failed to win promotion after the 2017–18 season and he was sold to newly relegated side 1. FC Köln for a fee of €1.8 million. He made his debut, including his first goal, for the club in a 2–0 victory against

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seasons in the Bundeslig ...

on 4 August 2018. Having been an undisputed starter in the first half of the 2021–22 season, he left 1. FC Köln in January 2022, with half a year left on his contract. ''

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (sports magazine), in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the word used i ...

'' described the move as "surprising". On 2 January 2022, Czichos transferred to Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire on a three-year contract.

Personal life

In a July 2018 interview Czichos revealed he was a life-long fan of

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 ...

References

External links

* * 1990 births Living people Men's association football central defenders German men's footballers Footballers from Jeddah VfL Wolfsburg II players FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt players Holstein Kiel players 1. FC Köln players Chicago Fire FC players 3. Liga players 2. Bundesliga players Bundesliga players German expatriate men's footballers German expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Major League Soccer players {{Germany-footy-defender-1990s-stub