Zoltan Sebescen (, ; born 1 October 1975) 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

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

or right-winger.

Club career

Sebescen was born in

Ehingen Ehingen (Donau) (; ) is a town in the Alb-Donau (district), Alb-Donau district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, situated on the left bank of the Danube, approx. southwest of Ulm and southeast of Stuttgart. The city, like the entire district o ...

. He started his career at

Stuttgarter Kickers Stuttgarter Kickers is a German association football club that plays in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, founded on 21 September 1899 as FC Stuttgarter Cickers. The club currently plays in the Regionalliga Südwest, the fourth tier of German footb ...

, where he played at a senior level from 1994, in the Regionalliga Süd, and from, in 1996 the 2. Bundesliga. In 1999, he transferred to

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 ...

side

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

and then in 2001 to

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

. With Bayer, Sebescen played in the

2002 UEFA Champions League Final The 2002 UEFA Champions League final was the final match of the 2001–02 UEFA Champions League, Europe's primary club football competition. The show-piece event was contested between Bayer Leverkusen of Germany and Real Madrid of Spain at Hamp ...

, losing to

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. In 2003, he had to undergo several knee surgeries, due to problems caused by

lyme disease Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a tick-borne disease caused by species of ''Borrelia'' bacteria, Disease vector, transmitted by blood-feeding ticks in the genus ''Ixodes''. It is the most common disease spread by ticks in th ...

. Having not been able to play for years, Sebescen announced his early retirement, aged 29, on 16 August 2005. He had played 72 times in the Bundesliga, scoring 13 times, and 52 times in the 2. Bundesliga, scoring 5 times.

International career

Sebescen became the first

player to earn a cap for the

Germany national football team The Germany national football team () represents Germany in men's international Association football, football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (''Deutscher Fußball-Bund''), founded ...

when he played in a friendly against

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

in February 2000. Being placed in an unaccustomed right-back position, he produced a dismal performance against Dutch winger

Boudewijn Zenden Boudewijn Zenden (; born 15 August 1976) also known by his nickname Bolo, is a Dutch former footballer who played as a left winger or as an attacking midfielder. Named the 1997 Dutch Football Talent of the Year, Zenden played for four teams in ...

and was substituted at half-time. He subsequently was not called up again.

Coaching career

In July 2007, he started working as youth coordinator for his first club, Stuttgarter Kickers.

Personal life

He is of Hungarian descent. On 31 October 2019, 44-year-old Sebescen returned to the pitch, signing for German amateur club TV Unterboihingen. Since his retirement in 2005, Sebescen had only played old-boys football, among others for his former club

. Sebescen had worked together with Unterboihingen's manager Daniel Zeller's brother, Philipp, at the sporting goods company Decathlon. Sebescen got his debut for Unterboihingen on 1 December 2019.Zoltan Sebescen beim TV Unterboihingen
stuttgarter-zeitung.de, 10 December 2019

External links

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sebescen, Zoltan 1975 births Living people People from Ehingen Footballers from Tübingen (region) German people of Hungarian descent Sportspeople of Hungarian descent German men's footballers Germany men's international footballers Germany men's B international footballers Men's association football defenders Stuttgarter Kickers players VfL Wolfsburg players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Bundesliga players West German men's footballers