Bernd Brexendorf (born 21 October 1954) 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 became a

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

. He worked as the club doctor of

FC 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, ...

in the 2007–08 season and 2008–09 season.

Playing career

Already at the age of 18,

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Brexendorf was a member of the

SV 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. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

Bundesliga squad. On 8 September 1973, he made his first appearance in a Bundesliga match. In the home match versus

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

he came in as a substitute with ten minutes to go, Bremen holding a 2–2 draw. He could, however, not prevent Werder losing the match by a Jupp Heynckes goal scored three minutes before the final whistle. In his first season in Bremen he had five more appearances in the Bundesliga, though only in one match (away at 1. FC Köln) he played the full 90 minutes. In his second Bundesliga season he suffered a similar fate; he appeared in five matches, only one of which – away at

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

– saw him play full-time. 1977–78 he was with OSC Bremerhaven before joining Westfalia Herne. Having played for two more years in the 2. Bundesliga he ended his career as a football player with Holstein Kiel. Altogether he made eleven appearances in the Bundesliga and 140 appearances in the second division, scoring 24 goals.

Post-playing career

Settling in

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, he concentrated on his career as a physician, getting his

approbation Approbation may refer to: * Approbation (Catholic canon law), an act in the Catholic Church by which a bishop or other legitimate superior grants to an ecclesiastic the actual exercise of his ministry * Approbation (Germany), the process of grant ...

in 1986. At the same time he had received a coaching licence from the DFB and started as a coaching player with VfB Kiel. Since 1993 he worked as a specialist for

orthopedic surgery Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternative spelling orthopaedics) is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

, joint manipulation,

osteopathy Osteopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine that emphasizes physical manipulation of the body's muscle tissue and bones. In most countries, practitioners of osteopathy are not medically trained and are referred to as osteo ...

and

sports medicine Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since the ...

. In between 1992 and 1994 he also acted as a coach for Holstein Kiel. As from 1994 he worked as a physician in a joint practice in Kiel. Here he treated numerous Bundesliga football players and

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

players of top club THW Kiel. On the side, from 1999 to 2001, he coached football team TSV Altenholz. For the 2007–08 season,

hired Brexendorf as successor of Thorsten Rarreck, who had been club doctor for nine years. He left the club in 2009 to take a director's job at a Hamburg clinic.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brexendorf, Bernd Living people 1954 births Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Bremerhaven Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players German men's footballers SV Werder Bremen players OSC Bremerhaven players SC Westfalia Herne players German sports physicians 20th-century German sportsmen