Jan Malte Metzelder (born 19 May 1982) 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

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 ...

. He appeared 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 ...

for

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 ...

, but spent most of his career in the lower leagues.

Football career

Born in

Haltern Haltern am See (''Haltern at the lake'', before December 2001 only Haltern) is a medium-sized town in the northern part of the district of Recklinghausen in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia. The town is located in the n ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, Metzelder made his professional debut with

SC Preußen Münster SC Preußen Münster (English: Prussia Münster) is a German sports club based in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia which is mostly recognised for its Association football, football section. The football team currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga w ...

in 2001, and two years later moved to

to play alongside his older brother

Christoph Christoph is a male given name and surname. It is a German variant of Christopher. Notable people with the given name Christoph * Christoph Bach (1613–1661), German musician * Christoph Büchel (born 1966), Swiss artist * Christoph Dientzen ...

. However, he appeared very rarely for the first team, amassing only nine

appearances – all in 2003–04 – and adding two minutes in a 2–1 away win against

FK Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German language in Europe, German-speaking countries, is an Football in Austria, Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vi ...

for 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 2005, Metzelder left Dortmund and joined

VfR Aalen Verein für Rasenspiele 1921 Aalen e.V., known simply as VfR Aalen, is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Aalen, Baden-Württemberg. The football team is part of a larger sports club which also offers its members gymnastics, tab ...

in the Regionalliga Süd (then third division). Two years later he stayed in that tier, being instrumental in

FC Ingolstadt 04 Fußballclub Ingolstadt 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Ingolstadt 04 or FC Ingolstadt, is a German football club based in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. The club was founded in 2004 out of the merger of the football sides of two other clubs: ESV Ingolsta ...

's promotion to the second level in his first season; he left the latter club in July 2014 at the age of 32, after no competitive appearances whatsoever in his last two years.

Personal life

Metzelder's older brother,

, was also a footballer (and a centre back), and both played for Borussia Dortmund, with his sibling also playing three years at

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and representing

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

on about 50 occasions, helping the team finish second at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Metzelder, Malte 1982 births Living people People from Haltern Footballers from Münster (region) German men's footballers Men's association football defenders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players TuS Haltern players SpVgg Erkenschwick players SC Preußen Münster players Borussia Dortmund II players Borussia Dortmund players VfR Aalen players FC Ingolstadt 04 players 21st-century German sportsmen