Thomas Gentner (born 4 October 1988) is a retired 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 left-sided defender and

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 history

Thomas came through the youth system 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 ...

. In 2007, he was signed by

Stuttgart Kickers Stuttgarter Kickers is a German association football club that plays in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, founded on 21 September 1899 as FC Stuttgarter Cickers. History In its early years the club had a decent local squad that played in the Südk ...

. In the 2007–08 season, he played for their reserve side Stuttgart Kickers II, who play in the German Oberliga. In the 2008–09 season he was promoted to the first team, and made 18 appearances in the professional

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

. In 2009–10, he played for

Eintracht Frankfurt U23 Eintracht Frankfurt II is the reserve team of Eintracht Frankfurt. Formerly known as ''Eintracht Frankfurt Amateure'' (Amateurs) until 2005 the team played as U23 (Under 23) to emphasize the character of the team as a link between youth academy an ...

in the fourth tier Regionalliga Süd. By 2010–11 he was back in the 3. Liga with TuS Koblenz, playing 37 games and scoring twice in the league, and making a further three appearances in the DFB-Pokal cup. Both league goals came in a 3–2 victory over

SV Wehen Wiesbaden SV Wehen Wiesbaden is a German association football club based in Wiesbaden, Hesse. Since the beginning of the 2007–08 season the club no longer plays its home games in Taunusstein, where they were originally located. In the summer of 2007 ''W ...

. Although the team finished the season in 11th place, they were not granted a 3. Liga license for 2011–12 as a result of financial problems. Effectively relegated, they would instead compete in the fourth tier Regionalliga West. Thomas left the club in June 2011. Kickers Offenbach made an approach to sign the player in the same month, but this was withdrawn when the player took too long to demonstrate a commitment to join the 3. Liga side. In July 2011, he joined

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

side

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

for a trial at their pre-season training programme in

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and Germany. On 6 July 2011 he played for Aberdeen in a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

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

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seas ...

, crossing for

Darren Mackie Darren Graham Mackie (born 5 January 1982) is a Scottish former footballer who, most recently, played for Inverurie Loco Works as a player/coach. Mackie was born in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and previously played as a striker for Abe ...

to score Aberdeen's only goal in a 2–1 defeat. The following day, however, manager Craig Brown confirmed that he would not be signing the player as he did not think he would significantly improve the existing squad. Later in the same month, he joined FC Nordsjælland from the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

for a trial. He played in a 1–0 friendly defeat to Dutch side

NEC Nijmegen NEC Nijmegen (''Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie''), commonly known as NEC (), is a professional Dutch association football club based in Nijmegen. The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion fr ...

on 9 July 2011. In August 2011 he signed a new contract with TuS Koblenz. His first match for the club in the 2011–12 season was a 1–0 Regionalliga West defeat to SC Verl.

Personal life

Thomas is the brother of

midfielder and German international

Christian Gentner Christian Gentner (born 14 August 1985) is a German professional football official and a former player who played as a midfielder. He works as a head of the professional player department at VfB Stuttgart. He won the Bundesliga twice, with VfB S ...

. In a 2010 interview with the

German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...

, Thomas accepted that he would be unlikely to ever play at the same level as his brother. In the same article, Christian claimed that Thomas has the potential and ability to succeed at Bundesliga II level.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gentner, Thomas 1988 births Living people People from Nürtingen Sportspeople from Stuttgart (region) German footballers Association football midfielders Stuttgarter Kickers players TuS Koblenz players 3. Liga players Footballers from Baden-Württemberg