Carsten Jancker

Club career

Jancker started his career as a trainee at Hansa Rostock before making his Bundesliga debut in 1993 with 1. FC Köln. At the age of 21, he was transferred to Rapid Vienna, scoring fourteen goals including seven in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup to finish as the tournament's top scorer. Thanks to this impressive performance, Jancker spent only one season with the Austrian club before being brought back to Germany to play for FC Bayern Munich.

Jancker's time at Bayern between 1996 and 2002 was the best period of his career, a spell which included four Bundesliga titles and victory in the 2001 UEFA Champions League. At Bayern, Jancker was partnered with the Brazilian inside-forward Giovane Élber, often rated as one of the Bundesliga's best attacking players.

Jancker left Bayern for Italian side Udinese in 2002, but the move was not a success; over two seasons and 35 games, the forward registered only two goals. Jancker was said to be "too slow and predictable for Serie A" by one football website. In 2004, Jancker returned to Germany with Kaiserslautern and showed a slight improvement in form, netting five times in 25 games. In 2004, he also scored six goals in Kaiserslautern's 15–0 first round DFB-Pokal win against FC Schönberg 95, still a record for any player in the competition. This was an improvement over his own previous joint record of five, which he had scored for Bayern Munich against DJK Waldberg in the latter's 16–1 first round cup defeat in 1997. Following the relegation of Kaiserslautern in May 2006, Jancker signed for Chinese team Shanghai Shenhua.

After poor performances, he was dropped in October, and agreed to join SV Mattersburg in the winter transfer window. In June 2009 it was announced that Mattersburg did not want to work with Jancker any further because of his physical condition. In February 2010, he announced his retirement at the end of the current season.

International career

His performances alongside Elber caught the eye of German national coach Erich Ribbeck, who included Jancker in his international squad for Euro 2000.

Instantly recognisable to European football fans, the invariably shaven-headed forward has generally failed to replicate his club form when playing for the national side. A possible explanation for his poorly-regarded international performances might be that the German national team lacked a skilful strike partner in the Élber mould. Whatever the reason, Jancker never impressed for Germany; although he was included in Rudi Völler's squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he was dropped from the team shortly after the tournament and was never recalled. His German international scoring record stands at roughly a goal every three games. He is known for scoring in Germany's 5–1 defeat to England in 2001.

Style of play

A striker, Jancker was physically very large for a footballer, standing at 1.93 meters (6 ft 4.0 in). His height and strength proved to be an advantage when playing as a target man, as displayed during his most successful days at FC Bayern Munich. Jancker was known for being an unusual center striker, being weak in the air despite his huge frame, but showing a surprising control of the ball, especially featuring a polished back-to-the-goal game, and a touch for scoring with his hard right-footed shot – always doing the most intelligent and simple things on the field.

Coaching career

On 18 February 2010, the former international striker took over the U14 team of SC Neusiedl, the club from his Austrian home town. Additionally he works for the first team in the Austrian Regional League East as an individual coach. On 27 April 2010, Jancker announced that he will work as the new coach of the Under 15 of his former club SK Rapid Wien, starting 1 July 2010. In April 2013, he became assistant coach of the club's Austrian Bundesliga team.

International goals

Honours