Moritz Heyer (born 4 April 1995) is a German 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 plays as a defender or

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 ...

for

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

club

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of thr ...

. He had previously played for

Sportfreunde Lotte VfL Sportfreunde Lotte is a German association football club from Lotte, North Rhine-Westphalia. The football team is part of a sports club with approximately 1400 members and departments for handball, walking, gymnastics, and swimming, as wel ...

Hallescher FC Hallescher FC, sometimes still called by its former popular name Chemie Halle, is a German association football club based in Halle an der Saale, Saxony-Anhalt. The club currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third highest level in the German footba ...

and

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its football section. History Foundation to WW2 The c ...

Career

Early career

In his youth, Heyer played for 1. FCR Bramsche, TSV Wallenhorst and

. With the latter, he progressed through the U17 and U19 sides and appeared in the Under 17 and

Under 17 Bundesliga The Under 17 Bundesliga (German: ''B-Junioren Bundesliga'') is the highest level of play in German football for male juniors between the ages of 15 and 17. It was formed in 2007 and operates in three regional divisions with 14 clubs each. At the ...

. In September 2013, Heyer made his first appearance for the second-team, VfL Osnabrück II, in the fifth-tier

Oberliga Niedersachsen The Oberliga Niedersachsen ( en, Upper League Lower Saxony), sometimes referred to as ''Niedersachsenliga'' (Lower Saxony league), is the fifth tier of the German football league system and the highest league in the German state of Lower Saxony (ge ...

Sportfreunde Lotte

Ahead of the 2014–15 season, in May 2014, Heyer moved from the Osnabrück U19 team to

in the fourth-tier

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western ...

. After not being utilised under head coach Michael Boris, he began making an impact under his successor, Ismail Atalan, at the end of the season, making four appearances, of which two were starts, and he scored a goal. In the 2015–16 season, Heyer established himself as a regular starter under Atalan in the second half of the season. He contributed with three goals in 26 appearances, of which 18 were in the starting lineup, with the team finishing with the Regionalliga West championship at the end of the season. In the subsequent promotion games against the

Regionalliga Südwest The Regionalliga Südwest ( en, Regional League Southwest) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. It is one of five leagues at this level, together wit ...

champions

SV Waldhof Mannheim SV Waldhof Mannheim is a multi-sports club, located in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg. It is most known for its association football team; however, there are also professional handball and table-tennis sides. The club today has a membership of ove ...

, Heyer appeared in the 2–0 win in the second leg, which effectively promoted Sportfreunde Lotte to the 3. Liga. In the 2016–17 season, Heyer, who from then increasingly played in central defense, was again part of the regular starting lineup and made 33 appearances in the 3. Liga, with 23 of them being as a starter, in which he scored two goals. Oscar Corrochano took over as head coach ahead of the 2017–18 season, as Atalan had moved to

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seasons in the Bundesli ...

. Under Corrochano and his successor Andreas Golombek, Heyer was again mainly used in the defensive midfield and scored three goals in 34 appearances.

Hallescher FC

In the summer of 2018, Heyer signed a one-year contract with 3. Liga club

on a free transfer. Under head coach Torsten Ziegner he almost exclusively played in central defense and made 36 appearances during the season, in which he scored 3 goals. In the sports magazine ''

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (sports magazine), in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the word used i ...

'', Heyer was subsequently one of the top ranked central defenders in the 3. Liga.

VfL Osnabrück

In May 2019, Heyer signed for

on a two-year deal, after they had reached promotion to the

. Under head coach Daniel Thioune, Heyer was one of the regulars right from the start. He played mainly in central defense, but was also utilised in defensive midfield and as a right-back. In 33 2. Bundesliga appearances, Heyer scored six goals. In ''

'' he was rated as the third best central defender of the league after the season. VfL Osnabrück finished 13th in the league at the end of the season.

Hamburger SV

On 17 September 2020, one day before the first matchday of the 2020–21 season, Heyer signed a three-year contract with

in the 2. Bundesliga. The move reunited him with his former Osnabrück coach Daniel Thioune. He would initially feature as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

alongside Stephan Ambrosius, but had to replace the injured

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

and captain Tim Leibold on the third matchday. Over the course of the first half of the season, Heyer oscillated between

defensive midfield 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 boundari ...

and centre-back when Thioune would utilise a formation with three at the back. From the 14th matchday on, Heyer was used in a 4–3–3 system as the defensive midfielder. Since Leistner and Ambrosius were injured during the course of the second half of the season, Heyer was again mainly utilised as a centre-back. As an all-rounder, Heyer made 32 appearances in the league in which he scored two goals. HSV finished fourth for the third time in a row after a strong first half and a weak second half of the season, as manager Thioune was replaced by

Horst Hrubesch Horst Hrubesch (; born 17 April 1951) is a German professional football manager and former player who last managed Hamburger SV. As a player, Hrubesch won three West German championships with his club side, Hamburger SV, as well as the European ...

for the remaining three games of the season. Manager Tim Walter took over HSV for the 2021–22 season. After Heyer was initially used in the 4–3–3 formation as a

central 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 ...

, he mainly played as the team's

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

later on. In this position he replaced Jan Gyamerah, who had been a regular starter after the injury of Josha Vagnoman until that point. In April 2022, Heyer extended his contract until 2026.

Career statistics

Honours

Sportfreunde Lotte *

: 2015–16

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heyer, Moritz Living people 1995 births 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players German footballers Association football midfielders Sportfreunde Lotte players Hallescher FC players VfL Osnabrück players Hamburger SV players People from Ostercappeln Footballers from Lower Saxony