Carsten Jancker (born 28 August 1974) is a German football coach and former player who is the manager of Austrian club DSV Leoben. He played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for various teams between 1993 and 2009, including FC Köln,

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a f ...

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 severa ...

Shanghai Shenhua F.C. Shanghai Shenhua F.C. () is a Chinese professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under license from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The term ''shen hua'' literally translates as "the Flower of Shanghai" in E ...

, and

SV Mattersburg SV Mattersburg was an Austrian association football club from Mattersburg, Burgenland. History The club was formed in 1922 and played its home games at the 17,100 capacity Pappelstadion. The club played in the Bundesliga since the 2003� ...

, as well as the German national team.

Club career

Born in Grevesmühlen, Jancker started his career as a trainee at Hansa Rostock before making his

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 footbal ...

debut in 1993 with

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

. At the age of 21, he was transferred to

Rapid Vienna Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a '' casca ...

, scoring fourteen goals including seven in the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

to finish as the tournament's top scorer. Thanks to this impressive performance, Jancker spent only one season with the Austrian club before being brought back to Germany to play for

. Jancker's time at Bayern between 1996 and 2002 was the best period of his career, a spell which included four

titles and victory in the 2001

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. At Bayern, Jancker was partnered with the Brazilian inside-forward Giovane Élber, often rated as one of the Bundesliga's best attacking players. Jancker left Bayern for Italian side Udinese in 2002, but the move was not a success; over two seasons and 35 games, the forward registered only two goals. Jancker was said to be "too slow and predictable for Serie A" by one football website. In 2004, Jancker returned to Germany with

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfu ...

and showed a slight improvement in form, netting five times in 25 games. In 2004, he also scored six goals in Kaiserslautern's 15–0 first round

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 ...

win against

FC Schönberg 95 FC Schönberg is a German association football club from the city of Schönberg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. History The club has its origins in ''TSG Schönberg'' which was created as ''SG Schönberg'' in 1945 at the end of World War II and later ...

, still a record for any player in the competition. This was an improvement over his own previous joint record of five, which he had scored for Bayern Munich against DJK Waldberg in the latter's 16–1 first round cup defeat in 1997. Following the relegation of Kaiserslautern in May 2006, Jancker signed for Chinese team

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua F.C. () is a Chinese professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under license from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The term ''shen hua'' literally translates as "the Flower of Shanghai" i ...

. After poor performances, he was dropped in October, and agreed to join

in the winter transfer window. In June 2009 it was announced that Mattersburg did not want to work with Jancker any further because of his physical condition. In February 2010, he announced his retirement at the end of the current season.

International career

His performances alongside Elber caught the eye of German national coach Erich Ribbeck, who included Jancker in his international squad for Euro 2000. Instantly recognisable to European football fans, the invariably shaven-headed forward has generally failed to replicate his club form when playing for the national side. A possible explanation for his poorly-regarded international performances might be that the German national team lacked a skilful strike partner in the Élber mould. Whatever the reason, Jancker never impressed for Germany; although he was included in

Rudi Völler Rudolf "Rudi" Völler (; born 13 April 1960), nicknamed "''Tante Käthe''" ("Aunt Käthe"), is a German former professional football player and manager who serves as the sporting director for Bayer Leverkusen. A forward, Völler won the FIFA W ...

's squad for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea ...

– scoring a goal in the team's opening 8–0 win over

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...

, he was dropped from the team shortly after the tournament and was never recalled. His German international scoring record stands at roughly a goal every three games. He is known for scoring in Germany's 5–1 defeat to England in 2001.

Style of play

A powerful and tenacious yet slow

, Jancker was tall for a footballer, standing at . His height and strength proved to be an advantage when playing as a

target man Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the rol ...

, as displayed during his most successful days at

. Jancker was known for being an unusual center forward, being weak in the air despite his huge frame, but showing a surprising control of the ball, especially featuring a polished back-to-the-goal game, good link-up play, and a touch for scoring with his hard right-footed shot – always doing the most intelligent and simple things on the field, courtesy of his awareness. He also struggled with injuries throughout his career.

Coaching career

On 18 February 2010, the former international striker took over the U14 team of

SC Neusiedl SC Neusiedl am See 1919 are an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club founded in 1919 and currently playing in the Austrian Regional League East. They were relegated from the country's top tier after finishing last in the 1983� ...

. Additionally he works for the first team in the

Austrian Regional League East The Austrian Regional League East (german: Regionalliga Ost) is a third-tier division of Austrian football re-introduced in the 1984–85 season. It covers the Austrian states of Burgenland, Lower Austria and Vienna and is one of three leagues a ...

as an individual coach. On 27 April 2010, Jancker announced that he will work as the new coach of the Under 15 of his former club

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

, starting 1 July 2010. In April 2013, he became assistant coach of the club's

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. The ...

team. Jancker became the head coach of

SV Horn SV Horn is an Austrian association football club playing in the city of Horn. The club plays in the Austrian Second League. The team was champion of the Landesliga Niederösterreich in 1991, 1998 and 2007. In 2008, SV Horn won the Austrian C ...

in June 2017. He was fired on 28 November 2018. In April 2019, he was appointed manager of FC Marchfeld Donauauen, starting from 1 May 2019. On 23 February 2021, Jancker signed with DSV Leoben.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals :''Score and results list Germany's goal tally first.''

Honours

Rapid Wien *

: 1995–96 *

runner-up: 1995–96 Bayern Munich *

: 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01 *

: 1997–98, 1999–2000 * DFB-Ligapokal:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

: 2000–01 * Intercontinental Cup:

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

References

External links

* * *
Profile at SV Mattersburg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jancker, Carsten 1974 births Living people People from Grevesmühlen German footballers Association football forwards Germany international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Germany youth international footballers German expatriate footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players FC Hansa Rostock players 1. FC Köln players SK Rapid Wien players FC Bayern Munich footballers Udinese Calcio players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players SV Mattersburg players German expatriate sportspeople in China Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Chinese Super League players Bundesliga players German expatriate sportspeople in Italy Austrian Football Bundesliga players German expatriate sportspeople in Austria Serie A players Expatriate footballers in Austria German football managers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in China UEFA Champions League winning players Footballers from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania People from Bezirk Rostock German expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Austria SV Horn managers DSV Leoben managers