Gerhard Hans Poschner (born 23 September 1969) 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

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. He appeared in 286 games 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 ...

over 12 seasons, scoring 22 goals for

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 ...

and

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

. He also played in Italy, Spain and Austria.

Club career

Poschner was born in

Dumitra Dumitra (; ) is a commune in Bistrița-Năsăud County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Cepari (''Tschippendorf''; ''Csépán''), Dumitra, and Tărpiu (''Treppen''; ''Szásztörpény''). The commune is situated on the Tra ...

, Romania. At the age of five, his family fled the country to escape the

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

and moved abroad to

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 ...

, West Germany. He began his professional career in 1987–88 with

, where he played three seasons with little impact in the first team (an average of 15

appearances). Poschner emerged as a top-flight player with

, scoring 14 league goals from

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

and losing, for the second time, 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 ...

. He returned to Stuttgart for four and a half additional campaigns, helping the side win the 1997 edition 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 ...

and moving to

S.S.C. Venezia Venezia Football Club is an Italian professional football club based in Venice, Veneto, that currently plays in . They were relegated to Serie B after a 2-3 loss to Juventus. Originally founded as Venezia Foot Ball Club in 1907, the club have ...

from Italy in January 1999; additionally, whilst with the former club, in the 1998 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final against Chelsea, he was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

for dissent late on to put both teams down to ten men, with

Dan Petrescu Daniel "Dan" Vasile Petrescu (; born 22 December 1967) is a Romanian football manager and former player who is currently in charge of Liga I club CFR Cluj. As a player, Petrescu was deployed as a full-back or a winger and began his career a ...

having been ejected beforehand in a 0–1 loss in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. Subsequently, Poschner played with

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English language, English, is an Football in Austria, Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian cham ...

Polideportivo Ejido Poli Ejido 2012 Sociedad Deportiva was a Spanish football team based in El Ejido, Province of Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1969 and dissolved in 2012, it held home matches at '' Estadio Municipal Santo Domingo'' ...

and

TSV 1860 München , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; ''sechzig'' locally ; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's association football, football team plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football league system ...

, before retiring at the age of almost 35. In 1999–2000 he helped

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

's Rayo to a best-ever classification in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

(ninth), and they were eventually awarded a place in European competition via the Fair Play award, eventually reaching the quarter-finals with the midfielder being an important element. Poschner was named

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

in August 2009. He left the post at the end of the season, and went to work in the same capacity with 1860 Munich.

Honours

VfB Stuttgart *

: 1996–97 *

runner-up: 1988–89 *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

runner-up: 1997–98 *

DFB-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German association football, football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five t ...

runner-up: 1997 Borussia Dortmund *

runner-up: 1992–93

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Poschner, Gerhard 1969 births Living people Footballers from Bistrița-Năsăud County German people of German-Romanian descent German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Bundesliga players VfB Stuttgart players Borussia Dortmund players TSV 1860 Munich players Serie A players Venezia FC players La Liga players Segunda División players Rayo Vallecano players Polideportivo Ejido footballers Austrian Football Bundesliga players SK Rapid Wien players Germany men's under-21 international footballers German expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Austria German expatriate sportspeople in Italy German expatriate sportspeople in Spain German expatriate sportspeople in Austria West German men's footballers