Marco Russ (born 4 August 1985) 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 ...

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. ...

, spending most of his career 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 ...

with

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...

Club career

Born in

Hanau Hanau () is a city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ma ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

, Russ advanced through the youth system at nearby

. He made his debut in 2004, and on 29 April 2006 played in 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 ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, a 1–0 loss to

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 football team, ...

at the Olympiastadion in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. On 26 September 2009, he received a straight red card in the 33rd minute of a 3–0 home loss to

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 ...

at the

Commerzbank-Arena The Waldstadion (, ''Forest Stadium''), currently known as Deutsche Bank Park for sponsorship purposes, is a retractable roof sports stadium in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. The home stadium of the football club Eintracht Frankfurt, it was opened ...

for a foul on

Sami Khedira Sami Khedira (; ; born 4 April 1987) is a German former professional Association football, footballer who played as a central midfielder. He began his career at VfB Stuttgart, winning the Bundesliga in 2007, before moving to Real Madrid CF, Re ...

. In July 2011, after Frankfurt's relegation to the 2. Bundesliga, Russ became a transfer target for

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

manager

Felix Magath Wolfgang Felix Magath (; born 26 July 1953) is a German football manager and former player. The most notable spell of his playing career was with Hamburger SV, with whom he won three Bundesliga titles, the 1977 European Cup Winners' Cup Final a ...

. On the 16th, he became the second player that summer to make the move from Frankfurt to the

Volkswagen Arena Volkswagen Arena (; also known as the VfL Wolfsburg Arena due to UEFA sponsorship regulations) is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium in the Germany, German city of Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. It was opened in 2002 and named after the auto ...

, joining Patrick Ochs by signing a three-year deal for a fee of around €3.5 million. After two seasons in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, Russ returned to his former club in June 2013 after an earlier loan. He competed with the team in that season's UEFA Europa League, making eight appearances in all; on 19 September he scored from Tranquillo Barnetta's

corner kick A corner kick, commonly known as a corner, is the method of restarting play in a game of association football when the ball goes out of play over the goal line, without a goal being scored and having last been touched by a member of the defe ...

in a 3–0

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

home win over

FC Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux () or simply Bordeaux, is a French Association football, football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde (department), Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitain ...

. In May 2016, Russ took a routine anti-doping test which showed high levels of the hormone

human chorionic gonadotropin Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a hormone for the maternal recognition of pregnancy produced by trophoblast cells that are surrounding a growing embryo (syncytiotrophoblast initially), which eventually forms the placenta after implantat ...

(hCG), which can be produced either by

anabolic steroids Anabolic steroids, also known as anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), are a class of drugs that are structurally related to testosterone, the main male sex hormone, and produce effects by binding to the androgen receptor (AR). Anabolic steroids ...

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. After consulting a doctor on the 18th, it was confirmed that he had a malignant tumour. However, he put himself forward to play their promotion/relegation play-off against 1. FC Nürnberg the following day. In the match, he scored an

own goal An own goal occurs in sports when a player performs actions that result in scoring points for the opposition, such as when a Association football, footballer puts a ball into their own net. In some parts of the world, the term has become a met ...

from Sebastian Kerk's free kick in a 1–1 home draw; Frankfurt stayed up 2–1 on aggregate with Russ absent from the second leg. Russ returned to the pitch after undergoing therapy on 28 February 2017 in a

quarter-final against

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia is most well known as ...

, coming on in place of

Aymen Barkok Aymen Barkok (; born 21 May 1998) is a professional footballer who plays as a central or attacking midfielder. Born in Germany, he plays for the Morocco national team. Club career On 20 October 2016, Barkok, previously playing with the under-1 ...

at the end of the 1–0 win at the

Commerzbank Arena The Waldstadion (, ''Forest Stadium''), currently known as Deutsche Bank Park for sponsorship purposes, is a retractable roof sports stadium in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. The home stadium of the football club Eintracht Frankfurt, it was opened ...

. In the next round on 25 April away to

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

, he came on in extra time of the 1–1 draw and scored the shot that took the

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

to sudden death, with his team prevailing. He was an unused substitute in the

, a loss by a single goal to

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 ...

. Although not a first-team regular under manager

Niko Kovač Niko Kovač (; born 15 October 1971) is a professional Association football, football manager and former player. He is the manager of Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund. Born and raised in West Germany, Kovač was the long-standing captain of th ...

, Russ scored the first goal since his cancer diagnosis on 10 February 2018 in a 4–2 home win over

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 ...

. He played all six matches of their

2017–18 DFB-Pokal The 2017–18 DFB-Pokal was the 75th season of the annual German football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. The competition began on 1 ...

conquest, with every minute of their first five games, and sixteen in place of

Jonathan de Guzmán Jonathan may refer to: *Jonathan (name), a masculine given name Media * ''Jonathan'' (1970 film), a German film directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer * ''Jonathan'' (2016 film), a German film directed by Piotr J. Lewandowski * ''Jonathan'' (2018 ...

at the end of the 3–1

win over Bayern on 19 May. Russ announced his retirement from playing in June 2020 and was immediately hired as Match Analyst for Eintracht.

International career

Russ played one friendly for the Germany U20 national team in 2006.

Honours

Eintracht Frankfurt *

: 2017–18; runner-up 2005–06, 2016–17

References

External links

Marco Russ
at Eintracht Frankfurt's Official Website

at eintracht-archiv.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Russ, Marco 1985 births Living people Footballers from Hanau German men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Germany men's youth international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Eintracht Frankfurt players Eintracht Frankfurt II players VfL Wolfsburg players 21st-century German sportsmen