Tim Kleindienst (born 31 August 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 lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

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 ...

club

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

and the Germany national team.

Club career

Energie Cottbus

Kleindienst joined

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the German reunification, reunificatio ...

in 2008 from FC Viktoria Jüterbog. He made his 2. Bundesliga debut at 14 December 2013 against

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fo ...

replacing

Amin Affane Amin Tareq Affane (, ; ; born 21 January 1994) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Lärje-Angereds IF Affane, who was playing for the Division 3 team Lärje-Angereds IF, agreed to join Chelsea ...

after 78 minutes in a 3–1 home defeat.

SC Freiburg

On 20 May 2015, it was announced that Kleindienst would join

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions ...

for the 2015–16 season.

1. FC Heidenheim

On 2 September 2019, Kleindienst re-joined 1. FC Heidenheim having spent the 2016–17 season on loan at the club.

Gent

On 30 July 2020, Kleindienst signed for

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

side

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent ( Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent ** .gent, ...

. The transfer fee was undisclosed.

Return to 1. FC Heidenheim

In June 2021, Kleindienst returned to 1. FC Heidenheim by signing a contract until 2025. On the final matchday of the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season, Kleindienst scored in the 99th minute in the stoppage time to secure a 3–2 away win against Jahn Regensburg, in which his club finished top of the table and promoted to the

for the first time in their history. In that season, he also managed to achieve the top scorer of the division with 25 goals. On 6 April 2024, he scored a brace in a 3–2 victory over defending champion

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

, to be the latter's first defeat against a newly promoted side since 2000. He finished the 2023–24 season with the most aerial duels won in Bundesliga in 187 occasions, and also recorded the highest number of sprints, totaling 1,056.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

On 21 June 2024, Kleindienst joined

by signing a contract until 2028.

International career

In May 2015, Kleindienst was named in the Germany U20 which participated in the 2015 World Cup in New Zealand. On 3 October 2024, he was called up to the senior national team for the first time. Eight days later, he made his senior debut by starting in a 2–1 away victory against

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

in the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

. A month later, on 16 November, he scored his first international goals by netting a brace in a 7–0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the same competition. In March 2025, Kleindienst scored two headers in total in both quarter-final legs against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, helping Germany advancing to the

final four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

for the first time.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kleindienst goal.''

Honours

SC Freiburg * 2. Bundesliga: 2015–16 1. FC Heidenheim *2. Bundesliga:

Individual * 2. Bundesliga top goalscorer:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kleindienst, Tim 1995 births Living people People from Jüterbog Footballers from Brandenburg German men's footballers Men's association football forwards FC Energie Cottbus players SC Freiburg players 1. FC Heidenheim players KAA Gent players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Belgian Pro League players Germany men's youth international footballers Germany men's international footballers German expatriate men's footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium 21st-century German sportsmen