Clemens Fritz (born 7 December 1980) is a German former professional
footballer who played as a
right-back and as a
defensive midfielder. He is mostly known for his 11-year spell at
Werder Bremen.
Having begun his career at
Rot-Weiß Erfurt and
Karlsruher SC, he joined
Bayer Leverkusen in 2003, playing sparingly across his three seasons at the
Bundesliga club. In 2006, he moved to Werder Bremen, winning the
DFB-Pokal and helping them to the
UEFA Cup final in 2009. Across all competitions, he has played over 300 matches for Bremen.
In a two-year international career for
Germany starting in 2006, he earned 22 caps and scored two goals. He was part of their team which finished as runners-up at
UEFA Euro 2008.
He announced his retirement at the end of the 2016–17 season.
Club career
Rot-Weiß Erfurt
Born in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...
, then in
East Germany, Fritz started his footballing career playing for hometown club
Rot-Weiß Erfurt in the
Regionalliga
The Regionalliga () is the fourth tier in the German football league system. Until 1974, it was the second tier in Germany. In 1994, it was introduced as the third tier. Upon the creation of the new nationwide 3. Liga in 2008, it became the four ...
.
Karlsruher SC
In the summer of 2001, he joined
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 ...
club
Karlsruher SC and scored five goals in 32 games. When he was signed by
Bayer Leverkusen in 2003, he was loaned back to Karlsruhe to play first team football.
Bayer Leverkusen
He became part of Leverkusen's first team in the 2003–04 season second half after showing his capabilities for their reserve team. Fritz played 14 more first team games for Leverkusen that season, gaining them a
UEFA Champions League place. In 2004, he broke his leg during a pre-season game against
Rot-Weiss Essen, ruling him out the entire season.
Werder Bremen
In 2006, Fritz joined
Werder Bremen on a free transfer, signing a three-year contract.
He announced his retirement at the end of the 2015–16 season on 14 January 2016, but signed a new one-year contract on 28 April 2016.
On 4 March 2017, in a match against
Darmstadt 98, he suffered an ankle injury and underwent surgery, which ruled him out for the rest of the 2016–17 season. On 8 May 2017, he announced the end of his playing career.
International career
Having played for the Germany U-18s and U-21s, Fritz debuted with the
senior team on 7 October 2006, playing the entirety of a 2–0 friendly win over
Georgia at the
Ostseestadion in
Rostock.
On 2 June of the following year, he scored his first international goal, concluding a 6–0 rout of minnows
San Marino in
UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying in
Nuremberg, eight minutes after entering as a substitute. He added a second on 17 November, opening a 4–0 win over
Cyprus in another qualifier in
Hannover by heading in
Lukas Podolski's cross after two minutes.
Fritz was selected in the 23-man squad for the
European Championship in Austria and
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
in 2008. He played in the first four of their six games as they reached the
final before defeat to
Spain.
Career statistics
Club
International
:''Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Fritz goal''.
[
]
Honours
Werder Bremen2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
* DFB-Pokal: 2008–09; runner-up 2009–10
* UEFA Cup: runner-up 2008–09
Germany U161997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
Germany2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
References
External links
*
*
*
Leverkusen who's who
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fritz, Clemens
Living people
1980 births
Sportspeople from Erfurt
Association football wingers
Association football fullbacks
UEFA Euro 2008 players
German footballers
Germany international footballers
Germany under-21 international footballers
Germany B international footballers
Bundesliga players
2. Bundesliga players
Regionalliga players
FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt players
Karlsruher SC players
Bayer 04 Leverkusen players
SV Werder Bremen players
Footballers from Thuringia