Sascha Kirschstein (born 9 June 1980) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Career

Born in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

, Kirschstein started his professional career with

Eintracht Braunschweig Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 e.V., commonly known as Eintracht Braunschweig () or BTSV (), is a German association football, football and sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. The club was one of the founding ...

, making his debut in the

Regionalliga North The Regionalliga Nord ( en, Regional League North) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regionall ...

in December 2001. He moved to the league rivals

Rot-Weiss Essen Rot-Weiss Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club currently plays in the 3. Liga, at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße. The team won the DFB-Pokal in 1953, and the German championship in 195 ...

in the summer of 2002 and subsequently spent two seasons with club as their first-choice goalkeeper. In 2004, Kirschstein was signed by

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

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

to serve as understudy to

Martin Pieckenhagen Martin Pieckenhagen (born 15 November 1971 in East Berlin) is a German former professional footballer. He is the sporting director of Hansa Rostock. Over the course of his career, he played for 1. FC Union Berlin, Tennis Borussia Berlin, M ...

and

Stefan Wächter Stefan Wächter (born 20 April 1978) is a German former professional footballer, who played as a goalkeeper, and a goalkeeper coach. He was most recently the goalkeeper coach of Hamburger SV. Career Wächter lost his starting place at Hamburger ...

. He did not play in the Bundesliga during his first season with the club, but made 12 Regionalliga Nord appearances for Hamburg's reserve team. Kirschstein eventually made his Bundesliga debut against

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, th ...

on 26 November 2005, following an injury to Wächter, and secured his place in the starting XI with a string of impressive performances in the second half of the season. He was initially chosen as Hamburg's first-choice goalkeeper for the 2006–07 season and also made his

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

debut against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

on 13 September 2006. However, he was sent off only 10 minutes into the game. Despite that, he remained Hamburg's first choice in the Bundesliga and made two more Champions League appearances, before eventually being replaced by Wächter in early November 2006. During the winter break of the 2006–07 season, Hamburg signed

Frank Rost Frank Rost (born 30 June 1973) is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He comes from a sporting family background; his father Peter won a gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games in handball, and his mother Christi ...

as their new first-choice goalkeeper and Kirschstein was eventually sent on a two-season loan to

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 ...

side Greuther Fürth in the summer of 2007. At Greuther Fürth, he established himself as the first-choice goalkeeper and only missed one league match during the entire season due to a yellow-card suspension. On 4 April 2009, he signed a contract with

SC Paderborn 07 Sport-Club Paderborn 07 e.V., commonly known as simply SC Paderborn 07 () or SC Paderborn, is a German association football club based in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has enjoyed its greatest successes since the turn of the mille ...

. On 24 June 2009, the contract was canceled and he signed a one-year contract for Rot-Weiss Ahlen. When Ahlen were relegated in 2010, he signed for

FC Ingolstadt 04 Fußball-Club Ingolstadt 2004 e.V., commonly known as FC Ingolstadt 04 or FC Ingolstadt, is a German football club based in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. The club was founded in 2004 out of the merger of the football sides of two other clubs: ESV Ingolst ...

on 19 May 2010. Kirschstein retired in 2018, having been released by

Rot Weiss Ahlen Rot Weiss Ahlen is a German football club based in Ahlen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Until 2006 the club was known as ''LR Ahlen'' for its major sponsor, but underwent a name change when the sponsor withdrew its support after the team was relegated ...

Honours

Hamburger SV *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirschstein, Sascha 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Braunschweig German footballers Footballers from Lower Saxony Association football goalkeepers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Liga I players Eintracht Braunschweig players Rot-Weiss Essen players Hamburger SV players Hamburger SV II players SpVgg Greuther Fürth players Rot Weiss Ahlen players FC Ingolstadt 04 players ACS Poli Timișoara players German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate footballers in Romania