Matthias Scherz (born 14 December 1971) 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 striker.

Career

Scherz was born in

Rotenburg an der Wümme Rotenburg an der Wümme (also known as ''Rotenburg (Wümme)''; ''Rotenburg in Hannover'' until May 1969; Northern Low Saxon: ''Rodenborg'') is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Rotenburg (district), Rotenburg ...

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 ...

. He played for the amateur club Rot-Weiß Scheeßel until 1994. Then, at the age of 22, he joined

FC St. Pauli Fußball-Club St. Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St. Pauli (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg. The team plays in the Bundesliga from the 2024–25 Bundesli ...

. In his first two years in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, he was member of their amateur team. During the 1996–97 season he reached his goal to play in a first squad 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 ...

. After the club was relegated to the 2. Bundesliga, he appeared in the starting eleven most of the time. In 1999, he went to the second league club 1. FC Köln where he also had a place in the first team. In the 2002–03 season, he scored 18 times - three times more than usual in his previous seasons and helped his club to gain promotion to the first league. The following season he could not repeat his previous seasons performance, and 1. FC Köln was again relegated. In the 2003–04 season, he netted 11 goals, second on the team to

Lukas Podolski Lukas Josef Podolski (; born Łukasz Józef Podolski, , 4 June 1985) is a professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward or attacking midfielder for Ekstraklasa club Górnik Zabrze. He is kno ...

, in a season that saw FC Köln once again gain promotion. Although he has not played as often in the last few years, he did score seven times in 13 games during the 2007–08 second league season with FC Köln. He retired from football in 2009, but returned three years later to sign for

Fortuna Köln Fortuna (, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at least the Re ...

of the

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German professional football division administered by the German Football Association#Western Germany, Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. ...

. He retired again in 2013.

References

Living people 1971 births People from Rotenburg an der Wümme German men's footballers Men's association football forwards FC St. Pauli players 1. FC Köln players SC Fortuna Köln players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Footballers from Lower Saxony {{germany-footy-forward-1970s-stub