Benedikt Röcker (born 19 November 1989) 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

centre-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 ...

. Starting his career at lower tier clubs FV Löchgau and Sonnenhof Großaspach in

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

, Röcker moved to

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

in 2011, where he became a regular for the second team. After a two-year stint at Greuther Fürth, he moved to

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

club Brøndby, where he challenged for the league title, appeared in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

and won the

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

under fellow German, head coach

Alexander Zorniger Alexander Zorniger (born 8 October 1967) is a German professional football manager. He is the current head coach of Danish Superliga club OB. Coaching career Early career Zorniger started his coaching career with stints as head coach of Norman ...

, before becoming

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

in 2019. Röcker left the club in 2019, and joined Wehen Wiesbaden where he played for two seasons before retiring.

Career

Early years

Born in

Bietigheim-Bissingen Bietigheim-Bissingen ( or ; locally: ''Biedge-Bissenge'') is the second-largest town in the Ludwigsburg (district), district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with 42,515 inhabitants in 2007. It is situated on the river Enz and the riv ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, Röcker played in his youth at local club FV Löchgau. There, he progressed through the youth system until reaching the senior team, where he played in the 2008–09 season in the lower-tier

Landesliga Württemberg The Landesliga Württemberg (consisting of four divisions) is the second highest league of the Württemberg Football Association and the seventh highest league in the German football league system. It was first carried out between 1945 and 1950. ...

. In 2009, he moved to the Regionalliga Süd to play for Sonnenhof Großaspach. In October 2009, he won the Länderpokal, a regional cup competition, with a team consisting of lower-tier players from Württemberg. On 31 January 2011, Röcker moved to the reserve team of

. He made his professional debut on 22 February in a match for

VfB Stuttgart II VfB Stuttgart II is a German Association football, football team located in Stuttgart, currently playing in the 3. Liga. They are the German reserve football teams, reserve team of VfB Stuttgart. Until 2005 the team played under the name of VfB ...

in the

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

against 1. FC Heidenheim.

VfB Stuttgart

Röcker made his debut for the first team of VfB Stuttgart on 6 December 2012 during the

2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to s ...

against

Molde FK Molde Fotballklubb () is a association football, football club based in Molde Municipality, Molde, Norway, that competes in Eliteserien, the top flight of Norwegian football league system, Norwegian football. Founded on 19 June 1911, the club w ...

. On 15 December 2012, he made his

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 ...

debut against

1. FSV Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sport-Verein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05 or simply Mainz 05 (), is a German professional sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the top tie ...

. On 10 January 2013, Röcker extended his contract with VfB Stuttgart until June 2015.

Greuther Fürth

In January 2014, Röcker moved to second tier club Greuther Fürth. He won his maiden first team call-up for Fürth's league match at home versus

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher Sport-Club Mühlburg-Phönix e. V., better known as Karlsruher SC, is a Football in Germany, German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of Germa ...

on 14 February. He played all 90 minutes and scored the equaliser in the 1–1 draw.

Brøndby

In June 2016, Röcker moved to

club

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a Danish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Brøndbyvester. Brøndby IF denotes the professional football section of Brøndbyernes ...

on a three-year contract. The move reunited him with his former Sonnenhof Großaspach coach

. Röcker quickly established himself in the starting lineup, and was part of a team knocking out Hibernian and

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football league system, German footbal ...

in his first months at the club in the UEFA Europa League qualifiers, before losing over two legs to Greek club Panathinaikos in the play-off round. He made 46 total appearances during his first season at the club, in which the club finished in second place in the Superliga and reached the

final, where they lost 3–1 to rivals

FC Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen (, ), commonly known as F.C. København, F.C. Copenhagen, Copenhagen, or simply FCK, is a Danish professional football club based in Copenhagen. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on top of Kjøbenhavns Boldklu ...

. In the following season, Röcker was again a starter in central defense, this time alongside

Hjörtur Hermannsson Hjörtur Hermannsson (; born 8 February 1995) is an Icelandic professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Super League Greece club Volos and the Iceland national team. Club career Fylkir Born in Reykjavík, Iceland, Hjörtur began ...

or Paulus Arajuuri, as Brøndby were contenders for the league title throughout the season. However, in decisive games against eventual champions

FC Midtjylland Football Club Midtjylland (, "Central Jutland") is a Danish professional football club based in Herning and Ikast. The club is the result of a merger between Ikast FS and Herning Fremad. Midtjylland competes in the Danish Superliga, which they ...

, as well as

AC Horsens Alliance Club Horsens (), commonly referred to as AC Horsens () or simply Horsens, is a Danish professional football club based in Horsens, Central Denmark Region. Founded in 1994, as a superstructure on Horsens fS (founded 1915), Stensballe ...

, Brøndby's lead in the table was lost and they finished in second place. They had more success in the Danish Cup, with Röcker scoring a crucial goal as Brøndby beat

Silkeborg IF Silkeborg Idrætsforening, (; commonly known as Silkeborg IF or SIF in short) is a professional football club based in Silkeborg, Denmark. The club was founded in 1917, reached the highest level of Danish football in 1987, and afterwards became ...

3–1 in the final to claim the trophy. Personally, he had a strong season with 40 total appearances in which he scored five goals. In January 2019, Röcker was appointed

of Brøndby following the departure of

Johan Larsson Johan Larsson may refer to: * Johan Larsson (bassist) (born 1974), Swedish heavy metal bass guitarist * Johan Larsson (ice hockey, born 1986), Swedish ice hockey player * Johan Larsson (ice hockey, born 1992) Johan Oskar Torgny Larsson (born 25 ...

. He was, however, benched in the second half of the season, as Brøndby dismissed head coach Zorniger and the club finished in fourth place. Röcker made 25 appearances during his final season at the club in which he scored one goal, as his contract expired at the end of the season.

Wehen Wiesbaden

On 13 June 2019, Röcker joined newly promoted 2. Bundesliga club

SV Wehen Wiesbaden SV Wehen Wiesbaden is a German association football club based in Wiesbaden, Hesse. The club was previously known as ''SV Wehen'' but added ''Wiesbaden'' to its name during the summer of 2007. They left their previous ground, the Taunusstein, t ...

on a two-year contract, on a free transfer. He made 21 total appearances during the season in which he scored one goal, as Wehen Wiesbaden finished 17th in the league table and suffered relegation to the

. Röcker was sidelined at the start of the new season due to

patellar tendinitis Patellar tendinitis, also known as jumper's knee, is an overuse injury of the tendon that straightens the knee. Symptoms include pain in the front of the knee. Typically the pain and tenderness is at the lower part of the kneecap, though the ...

in his right knee, and in November 2020 further examination showed that he had suffered cartilage damage which required surgery. The injury kept him out indefinitely. On 24 June 2021, Röcker announced his retirement from professional football after making no appearances during the 2020–21 season. He stated that the decision was "unavoidable" due to his injury.

Honours

Brøndby *

: 2017–18; runner-up: 2018–19

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rocker, Benedikt 1989 births Living people Footballers from Stuttgart (region) German men's footballers German expatriate men's footballers SG Sonnenhof Großaspach players VfB Stuttgart II players VfB Stuttgart players SpVgg Greuther Fürth players Brøndby IF players SV Wehen Wiesbaden players 3. Liga players 2. Bundesliga players Bundesliga players Danish Superliga players Men's association football central defenders Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark German expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Sportspeople from Bietigheim-Bissingen 21st-century German sportsmen