Thomas Franck (born 24 February 1971) 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

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 ...

Football career

Franck was born in

Heppenheim Heppenheim (Bergstraße) is the seat of Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany, lying on the Bergstraße on the edge of the Odenwald. It is best known for being the birthplace of 4-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel. Geography ...

. He made his professional debuts with SV Waldhof Mannheim on 12 May 1989 at the age of 18, playing 12 minutes in a 3–4 home loss 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 ...

, with the club then 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 ...

(it would be his only appearance of the season, and he played in 18 matches more the following campaign, which ended in relegation). In the 1990 summer, he moved to

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 ...

, helping to the club's domestic consolidation in his first seasons, and also contributing with five matches in its

1992–93 UEFA Cup The 1992–93 UEFA Cup was won by Juventus, who beat Borussia Dortmund 6–1 on aggregate in the final, a record score for a UEFA Cup final. It was the third victory in the competition for the Italian team (first club to reach this record). Thr ...

runner-up run, scoring in a 7–2 home drubbing of

Floriana FC Floriana Football Club is a Maltese professional football club in the town of Floriana that currently plays in the Maltese Premier League. In all, Floriana F.C. has won 26 national leagues and 21 FA Trophies (present and longest surviving main k ...

in the first round. He was, however, only a fringe player when the team won back-to-back national championships (only 20 matches combined), leaving the club in June 1996. Franck subsequently signed for

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern () or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to football, the club also operates in sev ...

, winning consecutive league titles, one in each of the two major levels. In the 1997–98 topflight campaign, however, he appeared in no matches, due to injuries. In the following years, he appeared with three teams in different divisions – including former side Waldhof – with no impact whatsoever (he was also sidelined for the entirety of 1998–99), finally retiring from football at the age of 33.

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

: 1994–95, 1995–96 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

: runner-up

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

1. FC Kaiserslautern * Bundesliga: 1997–98 *

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 ...

: 1996–97

References

External links

* * 1971 births Living people People from Bergstraße (district) Footballers from Darmstadt (region) German men's footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players SV Waldhof Mannheim players Borussia Dortmund players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players SV Darmstadt 98 players West German men's footballers {{Germany-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub