Stefan Reinartz (born 1 January 1989) 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 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. ...

or defender.

Career

Reinartz was born in

Engelskirchen Engelskirchen (literally "angel’s churches") is a municipality in Oberbergischer Kreis, Germany in North Rhine-Westphalia, about east of Cologne. The neighbouring municipalities are (clockwise from the west) Overath, Lindlar, Gummersbach, Wie ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. He came through the ranks at Bayer Leverkusen, but did not play any games for them in the 2008–09 season. He made his professional debut in the Second Division while on loan with 1. FC Nürnberg on 9 February 2009 when he started a match against

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

. Reinartz played 163 German top-flight matches. The defender won three caps for

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He announced his retirement, at age 27, on 27 May 2016 due to injuries.

Honours

;Germany Youth *

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

References

External links

* * * * * * 1989 births Living people German men's footballers 1. FC Nürnberg players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Bayer 04 Leverkusen II players Eintracht Frankfurt players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Men's association football defenders Germany men's youth international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's international footballers Footballers from Cologne (region) People from Oberbergischer Kreis 21st-century German sportsmen {{Germany-footy-bio-stub