Fabian Ernst (; born 30 May 1979) is a German former professional footballer 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 ...

. He was regarded as a two-way player who can stop the opposition and start attacks with his passing from central midfield.

Club career

Born in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Ernst started his career with hometown club Hannover 96. From 1998 to 2000, he played for

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 ...

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 ...

, playing in 48 games, but scoring no goals. The

moved to

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

in 2000, where he was a major force in the league and won a cup double in 2004. In 152 games in the Bundesliga, he scored 11 goals. He left after spending three and a half years at Schalke and joined Beşiktaş J.K. on 2 February 2009, signing a contract which lasted until 2012. In his first season with Beşiktaş he scored two goals. An the end of the season, he was elected "The Best Player Of The Team" by the supporters. On 16 September 2010, Ernst headed in a

last-minute goal The term "last-minute goal" is used in sport, primarily association football, to describe a goal scored very late in a game, usually one that affects the outcome of the game. The definition of a "last-minute goal" commonly used is one scored either ...

against Bulgarian side

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

to help his team to a winning start in the group stages of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

. In the 2012–13 season, he joined Kasımpaşa S.K., another football club headquartered in Istanbul. He was also captain of the team. In June 2013, he announced that he was thinking about retirement. After a career break from the summer 2013 until the summer 2014, Ernst signed a contract with OSV Hannover although he had bids from other bigger clubs.

International career

In 2002, Ernst played his first international game, representing Germany against

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

. Ernst was a member of the German squad at

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 ...

. As of the end of 2007, he had won 24

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

and scored one goal for his country. After that first season by Schalke 04, he found himself not being selected by his national squad for FIFA World Cup 2006, just like for Euro 2008 and FIFA World Cup 2010.

Managerial career

In July 2020, Beşiktaş J.K. and Ernst announced that their cooperation to establish youth academies across continental Europe, focusing in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Werder Bremen *

: 2003–04 *

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 ...

: 2003–04 Schalke 04 *

DFB-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five teams of the previous ...

: 2005 Beşiktaş *

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

: 2008–09 *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupas� ...

; 2008–09;

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. ...

Individual * 2008–09 Golden Team of the Year –

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ernst, Fabian 1979 births Living people German footballers Footballers from Hanover Association football midfielders Germany international footballers Germany B international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Süper Lig players Hannover 96 players Hamburger SV players SV Werder Bremen players FC Schalke 04 players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Kasımpaşa S.K. footballers German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Turkey