Karlheinz Pflipsen (born 31 October 1970) 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 ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a player who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing passing moves which lead to goals, through their vision, technique, ball control, creativity ...

, Pflipsen played the first decade of his career at hometown club

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

, alongside stars like Martin Dahlin and Stefan Effenberg, winning the German Cup in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

. In

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

, he netted a career-best ten

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

goals (squad's best with Dahlin). After Borussia's relegation in 1998–99, Pflipsen was signed by Greek club Panathinaikos, and his talent became evident from the very beginning. In a

1999–2000 UEFA Cup The 1999–2000 UEFA Cup season was the 29th edition of the UEFA Cup competition. The final took place at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen and was won by Galatasaray, who defeated Arsenal in the final. The game was scoreless through the first ninety ...

match against

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. They currently play in the Primera División RFEF – ...

, Pflipsen sustained a

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's ...

injury in his left knee (he had already suffered the same injury on his right) and missed most of his first season. After recovering, he returned to Germany to play for

Alemannia Aachen Alemannia Aachen () or ATSV Alemannia 1900 is a German football club from the western city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. A long term fixture of the country's second division, ''Alemannia'' enjoyed a three-year turn in the Bundesliga in the ...

and TSV 1860 Munich, both in the second division, and retired at almost 35. In 2008, Pflipsen started his managerial career, joining Rot-Weiß Essen II.

International career

Pflipsen collected one cap for

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

, on 13 June 1993 against USA, a match in the 1993 U.S. Cup that Germany won 4–3. He came on as a substitute for Jürgen Klinsmann, wearing the number 13.

Honours

Borussia Mönchengladbach *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

: 1994–95; runner-up 1991–92 Alemannia Aachen * DFB-Pokal: runner-up 2003–04

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pflipsen, Karlheinz 1970 births Living people Sportspeople from Mönchengladbach Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia German footballers Association football midfielders Germany international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Super League Greece players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Alemannia Aachen players TSV 1860 Munich players Panathinaikos F.C. players German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate footballers in Greece