Carsten Linke (born 19 September 1965 in

Bad Zwischenahn Bad Zwischenahn (Low German: ''Twüschenahn'') is a town and a municipality in the low-lying Ammerland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is on Zwischenahner Meer, approximately 15 km northwest of Oldenburg and about 70 km south o ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

) is a German former professional football player. He spent one season 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 footbal ...

with

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betw ...

Career

During the 1990s, Linke played 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 ...

for clubs

VfB Oldenburg VfB Oldenburg is a German association football club based in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony. In the 2022–23 season, they play in the 3. Liga, the third level of football in Germany. History Founded by a group of high school boys as ''FC 1897 Ol ...

and

FC 08 Homburg Fußball-Club 08 Homburg or simply FC Homburg is a German association football club based in Homburg, Saarland, that competes in the Regionalliga Südwest. The club was founded on 15 June 1908 as ''Fussball Club Homburg'' by a group of seventeen ...

. After Homburg was relegated to the

Regionalliga West/Südwest The Regionalliga West/Südwest was the third tier of the German football league system in the states of Saarland, Rheinland-Pfalz and Nordrhein-Westfalen from 1994 to 2000. Overview The Regionalliga West/Südwest was formed in 1994 to form a r ...

, he moved to

1. FC Saarbrücken 1. FC Saarbrücken (german: 1. Fußball-Club Saarbrücken e. V.) is a football club based in Saarbrücken, Saarland. The club plays in the 3. Liga, which is the third tier of football in Germany. The club began its existence as the football de ...

in 1995, which had also been relegated due to license withdrawal. After just six months he switched to

in the 2. Bundesliga in the winter, where he rose to become a role model. In 1998, after relegation (1996), he and the team managed to get promoted from the regional league to the 2nd Bundesliga and in 2002 to the 1.

. There he played his first Bundesliga game at the age of 36. During his playing days, in which he played 215 games for the Reds, Linke was the favourite of the Hanoverians. He is still called the football god by fans today. Overall, Linke completed 313 games in the second division, in which he scored 47 goals. In the last season of his professional career, he made 15 appearances and scored one goal in the Bundesliga. From 21 February 2008, Linke held the position of sports director at

FC Carl Zeiss Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Formed in 1903 and initially associated with the Carl Zeiss AG factory, they were one of the strongest clubs in East Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, winning the DDR-Ober ...

. On 23 March 2009, he was relieved of his duties as sports director. He continued to work as managing director of FC Carl Zeiss Jena Spielbetriebs GmbH until the end of his contract in June 2009. At the general meeting on 23 March 2019, Linke was elected to the supervisory board of Hannover 96.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Linke, Carsten 1965 births Living people People from Ammerland German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders VfB Oldenburg players FC 08 Homburg players Hannover 96 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Footballers from Lower Saxony