Stefan Kießling

Stefan Kießling is a German winger, who started to play for Bayer 04 from 2006/2007 season.

The footballer began to play football in 1. FC Eintracht Bamberg, as his grandfather was a co-founder of the club. Besides, his father also performed for the team at the position of a goalkeeper. In 2001 Stefan moved to 1. FC Nuremberg youth team and signed his first professional contract a year later.

Kießling netted 13 goals in 21 matches of the reserve team, which helped him to get a six-year deal. His professional début came in 2003 in a hammering 0-4 loss to Hamburger SV. Stefan scored his first goal only a year later, on 7 March 2004. In 2005/2006, he managed to establish himself in the main squad and was sold to Bayer 04 Leverkusen for €6.5 million. The young talent drew the attention of Arsenal and Bayern, but he opted for ‘The Lions’ and signed a four-year contract till 30 June 2010.

On 12 August 2006, Stefan made his first appearance for the new club, coming on as a substitute. Despite poor Bayer’s performance during the following season, the winger stably scored more than ten goals a year. That was a good result, but the achievement of 2009 was even more crowning as Kießling was voted the Player of the Month in August, netted 19 goals in the season and made a hat trick in the match against Stuttgart.

In spite of different offers from other clubs, Stefan extended his contract with Bayer for another five years at the beginning of March 2010.

The young talent’s international début came on 8 February 2005 in the match against Wales. A year later he wore the captain’s armband and was called up to the full national team. On 28 March 2007, Kießling got his first senior cap in the friendly against Denmark (0-1). In 2010 Joachim Löw included him in the Germany national squad for the World Cup and the winger took part in two matches before being injured.