Sven Meyer (born 4 September 1970) 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 defender or

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 ...

Career

Meyer played as a youth for various clubs in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

, ending up at

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charl ...

, where he progressed to the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

. He was part of the young Hertha reserve team that reached the

1992–93 DFB-Pokal The 1992–93 DFB-Pokal was the 50th season of the annual German football cup competition. 83 teams competed in the tournament of seven rounds which began on 18 August 1992 and ended on 12 June 1993. In the final Bayer Leverkusen defeated the se ...

final – the only reserve team to have done this – before losing 1–0 against

Bayer 04 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, t ...

. Like many of that squad, he was given a chance in Hertha's first team, and made 70 appearances 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 ...

. In 1996, he moved across town, joining

1. FC Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as 1. FC Union Berlin () or Union Berlin, is a professional German football club in Köpenick, Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweid ...

, where he made 40 league appearances in the

Regionalliga Nord 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 Regional ...

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

ing a young side. In January 1998, he moved to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, one of the first German footballers to do so, signing for

Chengdu Wuniu Chengdu Tiancheng F.C. () was a Chinese professional football club based in Chengdu, China who last played in the 26,000 seater Shuangliu Sports Center in the China League One division. The club was founded on 26 February 1996 and was formerly kn ...

. Six months later he was back in Germany, joining

SV Babelsberg SV Babelsberg 03 is a football in Germany, German association football club based in Potsdam-Potsdam-Babelsberg, Babelsberg, on the outskirts of Berlin. The team was founded as ''Sport-Club Jugendkraft 1903'' and again as ''SG Karl-Marx Babelsbe ...

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

. He later had spells with

FC Bremerhaven FC Bremerhaven was a German association football club located in Bremerhaven, Bremen. History The club was founded 1 June 1899 and soon merged with ''VfB 1899 Lehe'' to become ''FC Bremerhaven-Lehe''. In 1917 ''FC'' merged with ''SC Sparta Brem ...

and

VfB Oldenburg VfB Oldenburg is a German association football club based in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony. In the 2022–23 season, they play in the 3. Liga, the third level of football in Germany. History Founded by a group of high school boys as ''FC 1897 Ol ...

before returning to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

in 2002, joining Tennis Borussia. He spent two years there, and five with

Spandauer SV Spandauer SV was a German football club from Berlin. History Early years The capital city was one of the earliest centres of German football and was home to 1. Spandauer Fußballklub Triton, formed on 24 May 1894, and Sportclub Germania S ...

, and is still active in the

Berlin-Liga The Berlin-Liga (VI), formerly the Verbandsliga Berlin, is the highest league for football teams exclusively in the German capital. Since German reunification in 1990, it has been the highest level of domestic football in the city, replacing the A ...

, playing for

Berliner Sport-Club Berliner Sport-Club, commonly known as Berliner SC, is a German association football club based in Berlin. The team is part of a sports club which also has departments for badminton, hockey, and rugby. History ''Berliner SC'' was created ou ...

. He also plays for Hertha's veterans' team. Meyer played in a variety of

defensive Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

or midfield roles, and was commonly deployed as a

sweeper Sweepers are small, tropical marine (occasionally brackish) perciform fish of the family Pempheridae. Found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Pacific region, the family contains about 26 species in two genera. One species (''Pempheris xanth ...

References

External links

*
Sven Meyer
at immerunioner.de 1970 births Living people Footballers from Berlin German footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders 2. Bundesliga players Hertha BSC II players Hertha BSC players 1. FC Union Berlin players Chengdu Tiancheng F.C. players SV Babelsberg 03 players FC Bremerhaven players VfB Oldenburg players Tennis Borussia Berlin players German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate footballers in China West German footballers {{Germany-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub