Roland Kirchler (born 29 September 1970) is an Austrian former professional

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 ...

er who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Born in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

, Kirchler played for

FC Tirol Innsbruck FC Tirol Innsbruck was an Austrian association football club from Innsbruck, Tyrol which existed between 1993 and 2002, when bankruptcy was declared. History Tirol Innsbruck was formed after the dissolvement of FC Swarovski Tirol in 1992 which w ...

from 1990 through 2002 and then at 32 decided to move abroad. But he returned to Austria after playing only one game in the Chinese league to sign for Salzburg. After one and a half season at Pasching he rejoined Salzburg before moving to

SC Rheindorf Altach Sportclub Rheindorf Altach, also known as Rheindorf Altach, SCR Altach or simply SCRA, is an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club based in Altach, Vorarlberg. It plays in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club is currently ...

. In summer 2008 he joined his first club,

WSG Wattens Wattener Sportgemeinschaft Tirol (), commonly known as WSG Tirol, is a professional association football club based in the town of Wattens, Tyrol (state), Tyrol, Austria, that competes in the Austrian Football Bundesliga, the top tier of the A ...

to finish his career where it took off in 1989.

International career

Kirchler made his debut for

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in a March 1993 friendly match against

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

but was overlooked for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

and only became a regular after the tournament. He earned 28 caps, scoring 5 goals. His last international was a March 2005 World Cup qualification match against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

Career statistics

Honours

FC Tirol Innsbruck *

Austrian Football Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

: 2000, 2001, 2002 *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for a record 27th time. Wo ...

: 1993

External links

Player profile
- WSG Wattens
Profile
- Weltfussball * 1970 births Living people Footballers from Innsbruck Austrian men's footballers Austria men's international footballers Austrian Football Bundesliga players FC Tirol Innsbruck players Beijing Guoan F.C. players FC Red Bull Salzburg players Austrian expatriate sportspeople in China SC Rheindorf Altach players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in China Men's association football midfielders FC Wacker Innsbruck (2002) managers WSG Tirol managers WSG Tirol players {{austria-footy-midfielder-stub