Peter Niemeyer (born 22 November 1983) is a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager, executive, and former player. He serves as the sporting director of

Preußen Münster Preußen or Preussen is the German word for Prussia. It also refers to: Ships * Preußen (ship), ''Preußen'' (ship), windjammer built in 1902 * SMS Preußen (1873), SMS ''Preußen'' (1873), armored frigate * SMS Preußen (1903), SMS ''Preußen ...

. During his playing career, he mainly featured as a

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. ...

, he also operated as a

central defender 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 ...

Club career

Although born in Germany, Niemeyer spent the first years of his professional career in the Netherlands, playing for

FC Twente Football Club Twente (), sometimes known internationally as FC Twente Enschede, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub E ...

in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

. In January 2007, he joined

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

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 ...

, appearing in three league games for the main squad in the 2006–07 season. On 29 September 2007, Niemeyer participated in the 8–1 home crushing of

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 ...

, scoring the game opener and his first Bundesliga goal. Incidentally, he fell out with an injury in the match after just 33 minutes. In the 2008–09 season, Niemeyer appeared in a career-best 25 official games, including five in 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 ...

, as Werder

reached ''Reached'' is a 2012 young adult dystopian novel by Allyson Braithwaite Condie and is the final novel in the ''Matched Trilogy,'' preceded by '' Matched'' and '' Crossed''. The novel was published on November 13, 2012, by Dutton Juvenile and ...

the final against

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

, where he started in a 2–1

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

loss. On 9 August 2010, Niemeyer moved on loan to

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football league system, German footbal ...

, who were relegated to the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

the season before. On 3 August 2015, Niemeyer signed for recently promoted

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 ...

in the Bundesliga on a three-year deal. On 1 September 2018, after the closing of the 2018 summer transfer window, he announced he had not received an offer to renew his contract and would leave the club. He retired from football shortly afterwards.

International career

Niemeyer played six games for the Germany under-21 team under manager

Dieter Eilts Dieter Eilts (born 13 December 1964) is a German former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. After retiring as a player, he began a managerial career and also worked for SV Werder Bremen as director of the football acade ...

. In the summer of 2006, he took part in the

2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 15th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. In December 2005, Portugal was selected to host the finals of the competition, which took place from 23 May–4 June 2006. The tournament was w ...

in Portugal.

Coaching and executive career

Between 2019 and 2020, Niemeyer was the coach of the FC Twente U21 team. At the same time he worked as the assistant coach of the first team under manager Gonzalo García and functioned as head of the youth department. In July 2020, Niemeyer signed a contract until 2023 as sports director of

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. ...

Career statistics

Honours

Werder Bremen *

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 ...

: 2008–09 *

runner-up: 2008–09 Hertha BSC * 2. Bundesliga: 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

References

External links

*
Peter Niemeyer Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Niemeyer, Peter 1983 births Living people People from Hörstel Footballers from Münster (region) German men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Men's association football utility players Eredivisie players FC Twente players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players SV Werder Bremen players Hertha BSC players SV Darmstadt 98 players Germany men's under-21 international footballers German expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands German expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands FC Twente non-playing staff 21st-century German sportsmen