Konstantin Viktorovich Rausch (, ; born 15 March 1990) is a 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

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 ...

. Born in Germany, he represented the country at various youth levels before switching allegiance to the Russia senior national team.

Early life

Rausch was born in Kozhevnikovo,

Tomsk Oblast Tomsk Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It lies in the southeastern West Siberian Plain, in the southwest of the Siberian Federal District. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited loca ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

ethnic German Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The constitution of Germany, implemented in 1949 following the end of World War ...

parents. His family emigrated to Germany from Russia in 1996. His first friend in Germany could not pronounce "Konstantin" and instead called him "Kocka", a nickname still used by his teammates and coaches. Rausch is

dual citizen Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one sovereign state, country under its nationality law, nationality and citizenship law as a national or cit ...

of Russia and Germany.

Club career

Early career

Shortly after moving to Germany, Rausch started playing football at the local club, TuS

Lachendorf Lachendorf (West Low German: ''Lachendörp'') is a municipality in the Celle (district), district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 10 km east of Celle. Lachendorf is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde ("collect ...

. At the age of twelve he received an offer to join the youth team of

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

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

. He decided he was not mature enough for such a big club and instead joined another local side, SV Nienhagen. He finally joined Hannover two years later, rejecting offers from

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 ...

and

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

Hannover 96

When 96 first choice left full back Michael Tarnat and his replacement Christian Schulz were injured, Rausch debuted against

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 ...

on 30 March 2008. He was aged 18, which made him the youngest player ever, to appear in Hannover's first squad. Rausch had a good game, but had to be substituted at half time after straining a muscle. Two days later, he signed his first professional contract, running until 2010. While Hannover favoured a longer contract, Rausch did not want to tie himself for too long.

VfB Stuttgart

After the end of his contract with Hannover on 1 July 2013, Rausch moved to VfB Stuttgart on a free transfer. On 5 May 2013, Konstantin Rausch signed a contract until June 2016 with VfB Stuttgart.

Darmstadt 98

On 6 July 2015, Rausch signed a one-year contract with

SV Darmstadt 98 Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German professional association football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was bri ...

Dynamo Moscow

On 21 January 2018, he signed with Russian club

FC Dynamo Moscow FC Dynamo Moscow (''FC Dynamo Moskva'', , ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Moscow. Dynamo returned to the Russian Premier League for the 2017–18 season after one season in the second-tier Russian Footba ...

. On 19 December 2020, Dynamo announced that he left the club as his contract expired.

1. FC Nürnberg and retirement

In summer 2022, after a season with 1. FC Nürnberg, Rausch retired from professional football.

International career

International youth teams

Rausch played for various German youth teams as a left full back or wing back, accumulating more than 30 appearances. His biggest success was a bronze medal at the

2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup 2007, the twelfth edition of the tournament, was held in South Korea between 18 August and 9 September 2007. For this event, the number of teams had been expanded from 16 to 24, with the top two of each group and the four ...

, where he started in every game except for one, which he missed following a red card. After the tournament, he was awarded a

Fritz Walter Medal The Fritz Walter Medal is a series of annual awards given by the German Football Association to youth footballers in Germany. First awarded in 2005, it is named in honour of Fritz Walter, captain of West Germany's 1954 FIFA World Cup-winning team ...

in silver as the second most promising German football player of his age.

Senior team

In March 2011, Russian media quoted Rausch to be interested in playing for the Russia national team, but that the

Russian Football Union The Russian Football Union (, ''Rossiyskiy Futbolnyy Soyuz'' or RFS) is the official governing body of association football in the Russian Federation. With headquarters in Moscow, it organizes Russian amateur and professional football, includi ...

never approached him. On 16 August 2017, he was called up for Russia for a friendly game against a club side

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (), is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first institution created from the All-Union Dynamo Sports Club. Dynamo Mosco ...

, which did not count as a full international match. He made his full international debut on 7 October 2017 in a friendly game against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. On 11 May 2018, he was included in Russia's extended

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

squad. He was not included in the finalized World Cup squad due to back injury.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Germany U17 *

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the annual world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fé ...

: third place

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Individual *

: 2007 in Silver (Category U17) *

: 2009 in Silver (Category U19)

References

External links

Konstantin Rausch
at the official German U18 page * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rausch, Konstantin Living people 1990 births Russian people of German descent German people of Russian descent Russian emigrants to Germany Sportspeople from Tomsk Oblast Russian men's footballers German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Men's association football fullbacks Russia men's international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's youth international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Oberliga (football) players Russian Premier League players Hannover 96 II players Hannover 96 players VfB Stuttgart players VfB Stuttgart II players SV Darmstadt 98 players 1. FC Köln players FC Dynamo Moscow players 1. FC Nürnberg players 1. FC Nürnberg II players 21st-century Russian sportsmen 21st-century German sportsmen