Jörg Heinrich (born 6 December 1969) is a German professional

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 ...

manager and former player. A highly versatile player, he was employed in a variety of positions in

defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

(

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

and

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

) and

midfield In many sports, midfield is the part of a sports field that is near the line that is equally far from the end lines. That is, in American football it is the part of the field near the 50-yard line; in association football (soccer) and field hoc ...

(

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

and

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 is the assistant manager of

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 ...

Club career

After spells with various small clubs in

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, Heinrich joined amateur side

Kickers Emden BSV Kickers Emden is a Football in Germany, German association football club, located in Emden, Lower Saxony. History The club first began playing in 1928 as a section of the gymnastics club Emder Turnverein, which was founded in 1861. An inde ...

in the summer of 1990 and played for the club in the following four seasons, three of which were in the third division. In the summer of 1994, he left Kickers Emden for

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 ...

side

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions ...

and started his professional career at the club. He made his Bundesliga debut on 20 August 1994 as a second-half substitute in SC Freiburg's opening match of the 1994–95 Bundesliga season, a 0–2 defeat away against

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher Sport-Club Mühlburg-Phönix e. V., better known as Karlsruher SC, is a Football in Germany, German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of Germa ...

. He went on to become a regular in the Freiburg team during his first season with the club and appeared in 33 out of possible 34 Bundesliga matches that season, also scoring seven goals for the club in the league and helping the team to a surprising third-place finish in the league that season. He scored his first Bundesliga goal already in his second appearance for SC Freiburg in the league, netting the final goal in the club's surprising 5–1 home victory over

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional association foo ...

. He appeared in another eight Bundesliga matches for SC Freiburg in the following season and went on to leave the club for

in January 1996. He went on to appear for Borussia Dortmund in all 17 Bundesliga matches until the end of the 1995–96 season and also won the Bundesliga champions title with the club that season. He was also a regular in the following two seasons, appearing in 64 out of possible 68 Bundesliga matches. He scored 11 Bundesliga goals for Borussia Dortmund in seasons with the club. In 1997, he also won the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

with Borussia Dortmund, playing all 90 minutes in their 3–1 victory over

Juventus Turin Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

in the final. In the summer of 1998, Heinrich moved to Italian club

ACF Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

and continued to play there in the following two seasons before returning to Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2000. In two seasons with Fiorentina, he made 57

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

appearances and scored five goals for the club in the league. He subsequently played three seasons for Borussia Dortmund, but was a regular only in the first of these three seasons. In 2002, he won another Bundesliga champions title with the club. Between 2000 and 2003, Heinrich made 63 Bundesliga appearances for Borussia Dortmund and scored seven goals for the club in the league. He also participated with Borussia Dortmund in the

2002–03 UEFA Champions League The 2002–03 UEFA Champions League was the 11th season of UEFA's premier European club association football, football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since its rebranding in 1992, and the 48th European Cup tournament overall. The competi ...

season and made seven appearances in the competition. In the summer of 2003, Heinrich left Borussia Dortmund for

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., better known as simply 1. FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English language, English, is a German professional association football, football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 ...

and appeared in 20 Bundesliga matches for the club in the following season before finishing his professional career in the spring of 2004. He played his last Bundesliga match in 1. FC Köln's 3–0 defeat away against SC Freiburg, his first professional club, on 27 March 2004. After retiring from professional football, he continued to play as an amateur in the fourth-division Oberliga NOFV-Nord, spending one season with

Ludwigsfelder FC Ludwigsfelder FC is a German football club from Ludwigsfelde in Brandenburg. History The association was created in 1947 as ''Vorwärts Ludwigsfelde'' as the postwar successor to ''Rot-Weiß Ludwigsfelde'' established in 1939. The club was re ...

and one half-season with

1. FC Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as Union Berlin (), is a professional German football club based in Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweide was founded. During the Co ...

, where he finished his playing career in December 2005 and continued to work for the club as their sports director. Beginning in August 2006, he also played occasionally for fifth-division side TSV Chemie Premnitz.

International career

Heinrich was a member of the Germany national team between 1995 and 2002, winning 37 international

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

and scoring two goals for the team. He made his international debut in Germany's friendly match against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

on 21 June 1995. He was a member of the German squad at the

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

finals in France and appeared in all five matches before the team was surprisingly eliminated by

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in the quarterfinals. He also appeared for Germany in all of their three matches at the 1999 Confederations Cup in Mexico, where the team was eliminated in the group stage.

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

: 1995–96, 2001–02 *

DFL-Supercup The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off association football, football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (E ...

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 ...

: 1996–97 * Intercontinental Cup:

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

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 ...

runner-up: 2001–02

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heinrich, Jörg 1969 births Living people People from Rathenow Sportspeople from Bezirk Potsdam German men's footballers East German men's footballers Footballers from Brandenburg Germany men's international footballers German expatriate men's footballers SC Freiburg players Borussia Dortmund players ACF Fiorentina players 1. FC Köln players 1. FC Union Berlin players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup players Bundesliga players Serie A players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy German expatriate sportspeople in Italy Kickers Emden players Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Men's association football utility players UEFA Champions League–winning players FSV Optik Rathenow players