Frank Greiner (born 3 July 1966) is a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and a former player.

Playing career

Frank Greiner was born in

Coburg Coburg ( , ) is a Town#Germany, town located on the Itz (river), Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Ernestine duchies, Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only ...

on 3 July 1996. Beginning in 1987, he played professional football for sixteen years, almost exclusively in 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 played just one season in the 2. Bundesliga, with

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

, playing 28 matches as the club were promoted. Greiner played for 1. FC Nürnberg until 1988, when he moved to 1. FC Köln and established himself as a regular player. Köln reached the final of the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

, ultimately losing to

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 ...

. Playing for Köln in February 1994, Greiner was headbutted by Altin Rraklli. He played for Köln for seven years, including 15 games in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. In 1995, he moved to

, winning the DFB-Pokal in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. He moved to

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL 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 Wolfsburg. I ...

in September 1997, the same season that Kaiserslautern won the German title. He remained with Wolfsburg until his playing career finished in 2003.

Coaching career

Greiner was the co-assistant of MTV Gifhorn from 2006 until 2008, during which time he made a comeback as a player due to an injury crisis. In January 2013, he rejoined Wolfsburg teammate Dorinel Munteanu as assistant coach of

Russian Football National League The Russian First League (, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division () and Russian Football National League (FNL) () is the second level of the Russian football league system. The Russian Professional Football League (PFL) used t ...

side FC Mordovia Saransk.Greiner und Munteanu: Zwei Ex-VfLer in Russland
, waz-online.de (in German) He joined the staff at the Wolfsburg academy in February 2014.

Honours

1. FC Köln *

runner-up: 1990–91 1. FC Kaiserlautern * DFB-Pokal: 1995–96 *

: 1997–98

References

External links

* 1966 births Living people Men's association football midfielders German men's footballers German football managers 1. FC Nürnberg players 1. FC Köln players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players VfL Wolfsburg players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Sportspeople from Coburg Footballers from Upper Franconia West German men's footballers {{germany-footy-midfielder-1960s-stub