Sebastian Walter Kehl (; born 13 February 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 ...

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 ...

. He is currently the

Sporting Director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

. He amassed

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 ...

totals of 314 games and 24 goals over the course of 15 seasons, representing in the competition

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

and Borussia Dortmund. He won six major titles with the latter club, including three national championships. A Germany international for five years, Kehl appeared for the nation in two

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

– finishing second in the 2002 edition – and

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

. Following his retirement, Kehl first worked as the “Head of First Team Football” for Borussia Dortmund before it was announced that he would be taking over as Sporting Director, following the retirement of Michael Zorc.

Club career

Born in Fulda,

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

, Kehl joined Hannover 96's youth system in 1996 at the age of 15, going on to appear in two

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 ...

seasons with the first team. In the 2000 summer he signed for

in the

, making his debut in the competition on 12 August by playing the full 90 minutes in a 4–0 home win against

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 ...

, and scoring his first goal on 12 December of that year to help to a 2–1 away success over

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

. Under legendary manager

Volker Finke Volker Finke (born 24 March 1948) is a German football manager. He was the coach of SC Freiburg for 16 years. Coaching career On 6 December 2008, Japanese club Urawa Red Diamonds announced they signed a contract with Finke as head coach until ...

, Kehl featured mostly as a sweeper, helping the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

club qualify to the

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in his first season but suffering relegation in his second. He was no longer part of the squad, however, as he had left in the 2002 January

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer wi ...

, who went on to win the championship with 15 games and one goal from the player; previously, in summer 2001, he controversially agreed basic terms with FC Bayern Munich, and even accepted an advanced payment of 1.5 million

Deutsche Mark The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...

, which was returned in November as Bayern threatened to take legal action. file:Sebastian Kehl.jpg, upleft, Kehl with

in 2007 During his tenure with Dortmund, Kehl was more often than not a starter. He contributed with 12 matches in the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League, 2002–03 edition of the

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 competi ...

to help his team reach the second group phase, and amassed 61 league appearances from 2004 to 2006 in back-to-back seventh-place finishes. In the first day of the 2006–07 campaign, Kehl injured his left knee in a challenge with Bayern's

Hasan Salihamidžić Hasan Salihamidžić (; born 1 January 1977), nicknamed Brazzo ( bs, Braco, , "Little Bro"), is a Bosnian former professional footballer and current sporting director of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. After starting his club career with German s ...

, going on to be sidelined for several months and only recovering fully in the start of 2008–09, when he was made captain by new coach

Jürgen Klopp Jürgen Norbert Klopp (; born 16 June 1967) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Liverpool. He is widely regarded as one of the best managers in the world. Klopp spent most of his playing ...

. He eventually relapsed on his condition, also losing his importance in the starting XI after the emergence of

Sven Bender Sven Bender (; born 27 April 1989) is a German former professional footballer who played as a central defender and defensive midfielder. He was raised in Brannenburg and started his football career playing for TSV Brannenburg. Sven is the twin br ...

and Nuri Şahin. On 27 July 2013, Kehl played the second half of the DFL-Supercup contest against Bayern Munich, replacing Bender in an eventual 4–2 win. In September, he was put out of action for another lengthy period after injuring his ankle in training. Sebastian Kehl 2013

Kehl began hinting at retirement in March 2014, shortly after having agreed to a one-year extension to his contract. The 35-year-old confirmed it at the end of the 2014–15 season, after having taken part in 21 games to help Borussia come from behind in the table and finally qualify to the Europa League. In April 2018, Borussia Dortmund announced that Kehl would become its players licence department director starting on 1 June. In June 2021, Borussia Dortmund announced that Kehl would be the successor to sporting director Michael Zorc following his retirement in the summer of 2022.

International career

Kehl earned the first of his 31

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for the Germany national team on 29 May 2001, in a 2–0 friendly win against

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in Bremen where he came on for

Marko Rehmer Marko Rehmer (born 29 April 1972) is a German former professional footballer who played mainly as a right-back. Club career Rehmer was born in East Berlin. In his youth he played for hometown 1. FC Union Berlin; he arrived in the first divi ...

after 45 minutes. He scored his first goal on 15 August of that year, helping to a 5–2 triumph in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

in another exhibition game. Selected for both the 2002 and the 2006 World Cups, Kehl played twice (against

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

) in the former tournament as the ''Mannschaft'' finished in second position, and started in two of his four appearances to help to the third place in the latter.

Personal life

Kehl is married to Tina Kehl. They have three children.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kehl goal.''

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

: 2001–02,

2010–11 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. ...

, 2011–12 *

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 ...

: 2011–12 * DFL-Supercup:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

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runner-up:

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 ...

Germany *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

runner-up: 2002; third place 2006 * FIFA Confederations Cup third place: 2005 Individual *''

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 ...

Team of the Season: 2000–01, 2008–09

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kehl, Sebastian 1980 births Living people People from Fulda Sportspeople from Kassel (region) Footballers from Hesse German footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Germany international footballers Association football midfielders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Hannover 96 players SC Freiburg players Borussia Dortmund players Borussia Dortmund II players UEFA Euro 2004 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Borussia Dortmund non-playing staff