Fabian Klos (born 2 December 1987) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Career

Born in

Gifhorn Gifhorn () is a town and capital of the district of Gifhorn (district), Gifhorn in the east of Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a population of about 42,000 and is mainly influenced by the small distance to the more industrial and commercially import ...

, Klos was a prolific goalscorer in amateur football in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

. In 2009, he joined

VfL Wolfsburg II VfL Wolfsburg II was a German association football team from the city of Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. It was the reserve team of VfL Wolfsburg. The team's greatest success was two league championships in the tier four Regionalliga Nord, in 2013–14 ...

spending two years in the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord () is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regionalliga Bayern, Regionalliga N ...

. In 2011, he signed for

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia is most well known as ...

of 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 ...

alongside team-mate

Maximilian Ahlschwede Maximilian Ahlschwede (born 10 February 1990) 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 ...

, and made his debut on the opening day of the 2011–12 season, as a substitute for

Johannes Rahn Johannes Rahn (born 16 January 1986 in Hachenburg) is a German footballer who plays for SV Eintracht Windhagen. Rahn made his professional debut for TuS Koblenz during the first round of fixtures of the 2006–07 2. Bundesliga season away to MS ...

in a 2–1 defeat against

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 ...

. He scored ten goals in his first season with Bielefeld, and was named as 3. Liga player of the year. He scored 20 goals in the

2012–13 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 sp ...

season, finishing as joint top-scorer of the 3. Liga, along with

Chemnitzer FC Chemnitzer Fußballclub e.V. is a German association football club based in Chemnitz, Saxony. The club competes in Regionalliga Nordost, the fourth tier of German football. The roots of the club go back to its establishment as Chemnitzer BC 193 ...

Anton Fink Anton Fink (born 30 July 1987) is a German professional footballer who plays as a striker for Oberliga Baden-Württemberg club FC Nöttingen. He has scored the most 3. liga goals of all time (136). Career After playing youth football with SC M ...

, as Bielefeld were promoted to the 2. Bundesliga as runners-up. In October 2013, he suffered a

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, difficulty with thinking and concentration, sleep disturbances, a brief ...

during a match, but returned to the pitch after one and half month. After the season his team got relegated to the

again. In spite of offers from some 2. Bundesliga sides, Klos stayed with Arminia. He became the team's captain and - for the second time - the league's top-scorer. Arminia returned to the 2. Bundesliga, where they would stay for five seasons. After Jeff Saibene had become Arminia's manager, Klos started many games on the bench.

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

was already interested in him after the 2016-17 season, but he decided to improve his fitness and to fight to become a part of the starting XI again. Nevertheless,

Julian Börner Julian Börner (born 21 January 1991) is a German professional footballer who plays as a defender. After playing youth football for , Vimaria Weimar and Rot-Weiß Erfurt, he made his debut in professional football for Energie Cottbus in the 2 ...

was elected captain for the 2017-18 season. In April 2018 he becomes Arminia Bielefeld's all-time top-scorer. In 2019, he became the team's captain again. Furthermore, he was the league's top-scorer in the 2019-20 season, scoring 21 goals. Thus, Arminia got promoted to the

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 ...

. He scored his first goal on 28 November at

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

away. In fact, he played every match in the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season. In February 2022, the club and him had already agreed to let his contract expire after the 2021–22 season. But in April, he suffered a serious head injury and had to end the season. Thus - and perhaps because the relegation to the 2. Bundesliga was already foreseeable - he decided to stay. Klos retired from playing at the end of the 2023–24 season.

Career statistics

References

External links

* Living people 1987 births People from Gifhorn Footballers from Lower Saxony German men's footballers Men's association football forwards VfL Wolfsburg II players Arminia Bielefeld players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players 21st-century German sportsmen {{Germany-footy-forward-1980s-stub