Alexander Esswein (born 25 March 1990; ) is a German 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 ...

who plays as a winger or forward for

SV Sandhausen Sportverein Sandhausen 1916 e.V., commonly known as simply SV Sandhausen or Sandhausen, is a German association football club that plays in Sandhausen, immediately to the south of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg. The club's greatest success c ...

Club career

Esswein made his debut in the 2007–08 season. He appeared in a league match during the season. He came on in the 63rd minute in a 2–1 loss to

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 Ballsp ...

on 17 December 2007. He then transferred to

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or 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 W ...

and split time between the first and second teams. He made four league appearances during the 2008–09 season and four league appearances and a

German Cup The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout Association football, 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. Bundesl ...

appearance in the 2009–10 season. He substantially made more appearances for the reserve team. During the 2008–09 season, he made 21 appearances, and during the 2009–10 season, he scored four goals in 20 appearances. Esswein moved to

Dynamo Dresden Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V., commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, are a German association football club based in Dresden, Saxony.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. K ...

for the 2010–11 season. During the season, he scored 17 goals in 31 league appearances. This includes two goals against Bayern's reserve team, in a 3–1 win on 11 November 2010;

Wehen Wiesbaden SV Wehen Wiesbaden is a German association football club based in Wiesbaden, Hesse. Since the beginning of the 2007–08 season the club no longer plays its home games in Taunusstein, where they were originally located. In the summer of 2007 ' ...

, in a 3–0 win, on 5 March 2011; and against

SpVgg Unterhaching Spielvereinigung Unterhaching () is a German sports club in Unterhaching, a semi-rural municipality on the southern outskirts of the Bavarian capital Munich. The club is widely known for playing in the first-division association football league B ...

, in a 4–0 win, on 23 April 2011. He also made two appearances in the promotion playoff. This proved to be Esswein's only season at the club. He transferred to

1. FC Nürnberg 1. Fußball-Club Nürnberg Verein für Leibesübungen e. V., often called 1. FC Nürnberg (, en, 1. Football Club Nuremberg) or simply Nürnberg, is a German association football club in Nuremberg, Bavaria, who currently compete in the 2. Bunde ...

for the 2011–12 season. During the 2011–12 season, he scored four goals in 26 league appearances and a goal in three

appearances. His four league goals came against

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded ...

, in a 1–0 win, on 27 August 2011;

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 a 2–0 win, on 21 January 2012; Köln, in a 2–1 win, on 18 February 2012; and

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

, in a 1–0 win, on 25 February 2012. His German Cup goal came in the second round against

Erzgebirge Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. Liga in 2008–09, ...

in a 2–1 win on 26 October 2011. His goal scoring rate would drop in the subsequent seasons with Nürnberg. He dropped down to three goals in 28 appearances in the 2012–13 season and no goals in five appearances during the 2013–14 season. He also made an appearance in the

Regionalliga Bayern The Regionalliga Bayern, ( en, Regional league Bavaria), is the highest association football league in the state of Bavaria (german: Bayern) and the Bavarian football league system. It is one of five Regionalligas in German football, the fourth ti ...

for 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 ...

during the 2013–14 season. He moved to Augsburg during the January transfer window and made 13 appearances for Augsburg during the 2013–14 season. He scored a goal in 19 appearances during the 2014–15 season. The goal came against Köln on 6 December 2014 in a 2–1 win. Esswein played in the opening match of the 2015–16 season, in a

match against

SV Elversberg SpVgg 07 Elversberg is a Football in Germany, German association football club, located in Spiesen-Elversberg, Saarland. History The club was founded in 1907 as ''FC Germania Elversberg''. It was dissolved in 1914, but then re-constituted in 19 ...

, a 3–1 extra time win. He then opened his Bundesliga campaign by playing in the first three matchdays, including the 1–0 loss to Hertha BSC in the league opener on 15 August 2015.

Hertha BSC

On 26 August 2016, Esswein signed for Hertha BSC on a four-year deal. On 24 September, he scored his first goal for Hertha in a 3–3 draw against

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

VfB Stuttgart

In January 2019

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. Vf ...

signed Esswein on loan with a contract option for a permanent deal.

SV Sandhausen

On 9 October 2020, Esswein joined

on a free transfer.

International career

Esswein played for the German U-21 national team. Previously he had already played for the U-17, U-18, U-18, U-19 and U-20 national team. He was part of the German U-17 team that finished in third place in the

2007 U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup 2007, the twelfth edition of the tournament, was held in South Korea between 18 August and 9 September 2007. For this event, the number of teams had been expanded from 16 to 24, with the top two of each group and the four ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. In this tournament, Esswein scored two goals against

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, small ...

in the group-stage and scored the winning goal in the third place playoff against

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

two minutes into stoppage time.

Career statistics

Honours

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 ...

: 2008–09

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Esswein, Alexander 1990 births Living people People from Worms, Germany German footballers Footballers from Rhineland-Palatinate Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's youth international footballers Men's association football forwards Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players VfL Wolfsburg players VfL Wolfsburg II players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Dynamo Dresden players FC Augsburg players 1. FC Nürnberg players 1. FC Nürnberg II players Hertha BSC players Hertha BSC II players VfB Stuttgart players SV Sandhausen players VfR Frankenthal players