Stefan Wächter (born 20 April 1978) 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 lea ...

, who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, and a goalkeeper coach. He was most recently the goalkeeper coach of

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

Career

Wächter was contracted to

from 2001 to 2007, making 64 appearances in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

and 22 in European competitions. In 2005, under manager

Thomas Doll Thomas Jens Uwe Doll (born 9 April 1966) is a German professional Association football, football manager and a former Association football, football player. As a player, he played as an attacking midfielder for F.C. Hansa Rostock, BFC Dynamo, Ha ...

, he became number one goalkeeper at the club, ahead of Martin Pieckenhagen, whose understudy he had been for years. He lost his starting place at Hamburger SV to former

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

keeper Frank Rost, and after the season it was announced he had joined Rostock as their starting keeper, to accompany them in the Bundesliga. In 2008 he tore his

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint, wrist joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in ...

and after three operations was forced to retire from playing at the age of 32.

Later life

After his retirement Wächter studied sports management and founded a drinks company selling

apple cider Apple cider (also called sweet cider, soft cider, or simply cider) is the name used in the United States and Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples. Though typically referred to simply as "cider" in North ...

Career statistics

Honours

Hamburger SV * DFL-Ligapokal:

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

References

External links

* 1978 births Living people German men's footballers Footballers from Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia Men's association football goalkeepers Bundesliga players Regionalliga players SC Westfalia Herne players VfL Bochum II players KFC Uerdingen 05 players Hamburger SV players Hamburger SV II players FC Hansa Rostock players {{Germany-footy-goalkeeper-stub