Rüdiger Kauf (born 1 March 1975) 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 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 ...

. After having a short spell at

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 Stu ...

he moved to

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

in 2001. He is called "Rübe" (English: Beet) by the Arminia fans.

Career

Born in Esslingen am Neckar,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, Kauf started his career in the youth team of TV Hochdorf in 1982. From 1994 to 1996 he played for

SC Geislingen SC Geislingen is a German association football club from the city of Geislingen, Baden-Württemberg established 31 May 1900. The football department became independent on 1 July 1911 and later took on the name ''Fußballverein 1919 Geislingen'' ...

and from 1996 to 1998 for VfL Kirchheim/Teck. In 1998, Kauf signed his first professional contract with

. In the 1999–2000 season, he debuted 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 footba ...

. In the three years at Stuttgart he was not able to get a permanent place in the first team and so he left for

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 ...

. With Bielefeld he achieved the promotion to the Bundesliga in the 2001–02 season. The club was relegated in the season after but achieved immediate promotion again in the 2003–04 season. Kauf had been an integral part of the team and had also been captain for Arminia Bielefeld. Following injuries during the 2010–11 season, he retired at the end of that season.

Style of play

In Bielefeld, Kauf was an undisputed regular and the so-called "midfield engine" of Arminia due to his tireless running performance and ball-winning ability. He stood out especially for his commitment and readiness for running.

References

External links

* 1975 births Living people People from Esslingen am Neckar Footballers from Stuttgart (region) German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders VfL Kirchheim/Teck players VfB Stuttgart players VfB Stuttgart II players Arminia Bielefeld players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players {{germany-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub