Andreas Zimmermann (born 28 December 1969) is a German football manager and a former player who played as a defender. He is the manager of Rot Weiss Ahlen. He began his career in his hometown of

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

, before spending seven years playing for

LR Ahlen Rot Weiss Ahlen is a German football club based in Ahlen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Until 2006 the club was known as ''LR Ahlen'' for its major sponsor, but underwent a name change when the sponsor withdrew its support after the team was relegate ...

, a team he later briefly managed.

Playing career

Zimmermann began his career with

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 ...

in 1992, who signed him from local amateur club Spandauer BC. He made 27 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 his first season, scoring three goals, and was an occasional member of 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 ...

that reached the final of the

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 considere ...

. He scored in a quarter-final win over 1. FC Nürnberg, but didn't play in the final, which Hertha's reserve team lost against

Bayer 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, th ...

. Over the next two seasons, Zimmermann only made eighteen appearances for the Hertha first team, and in 1995 he crossed the city to join Union Berlin, of the

Regionalliga Nordost The Regionalliga Nordost is the fourth tier of German football in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. These comprise the states of former East Germany as well as West Berlin. It ...

. A year later he signed for

, an ambitious team in the

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western ...

, and helped them to promotion to the second tier in 2000, after a playoff victory over his old club Union Berlin. He made 60 appearances at this level, as Ahlen finished 6th and then 8th, before he left the club in 2002. He then spent a season each with

Rot-Weiss Essen Rot-Weiss Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club currently plays in the 3. Liga, at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße. The team won the DFB-Pokal in 1953, and the German championship in 19 ...

and

SC Paderborn Sport-Club Paderborn 07 e.V., commonly known as simply SC Paderborn 07 () or SC Paderborn, is a German association football club based in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has enjoyed its greatest successes since the turn of the mille ...

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 ...

, but only made a total of 33 appearances, due in part to injury. He spent two seasons with 1. FC Kleve of the

Oberliga Nordrhein The Oberliga Nordrhein was the highest Football League in the region of Nordrhein which is part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1978 to 2008. In its last season, it was one of nine Oberligas in German football, the 4th tier of the ...

, before signing for amateur side Siegfried Materborn in 2006.

Coaching career

Zimmermann ended his playing career in January 2007, when he returned to 1. FC Kleve as General Manager, but left the club after six months due to disagreements with the board. After a brief return to active football with amateurs Borussia Brand, he returned to

. now under the name of Rot-Weiss. He managed the reserves, and later the under-19 team, and in September 2009 he replaced Stefan Emmerling as manager. However, this was only to last a month: Zimmermann didn't have the correct coaching licences, and as the club were unable to get special dispensation from the

Deutsche Fußball Liga The DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga GmbH, or simply Deutsche Fußball Liga ("German Football League"), and often shortened to DFL, is a wholly owned subsidiary of '' Die Liga – Fußballverband''. The DFL is responsible for entire operating business ...

, he was replaced by Christian Hock. He continued as assistant manager until Hock was sacked at the end of the 2009–10 season. In summer 2011, Zimmermann was appointed coach of the under-19 team of

FC Ingolstadt 04 Fußball-Club Ingolstadt 2004 e.V., commonly known as FC Ingolstadt 04 or FC Ingolstadt, is a German football club based in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. The club was founded in 2004 out of the merger of the football sides of two other clubs: ESV Ingols ...

, where he spent just over a year for leaving due to personal reasons. He was appointed as manager of Carl Zeiss Jena in September 2013. He was sacked by Jena seven months later. On 16 November 2020, he returned to Rot Weiss Ahlen as a caretaker manager. He was made permanent manager of the club in 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmermann, Andreas 1969 births Living people German footballers Footballers from Berlin Association football defenders 2. Bundesliga players Hertha BSC II players Hertha BSC players 1. FC Union Berlin players Rot Weiss Ahlen players Rot-Weiss Essen players SC Paderborn 07 players German football managers Rot Weiss Ahlen managers FC Carl Zeiss Jena managers