Uwe Rosler

Germany

Born in Altenburg, Rosler started his career in his native East Germany, joining Lokomotive Leipzig in 1987, where he spent one season, before moving on to BSG Chemie Leipzig in 1988. Following this he transferred to 1. FC Magdeburg in 1989, where he spent a year before signing for Dynamo Dresden in the winter 1990/91. After two years with Dresden, he also spent two years with 1. FC Nurnberg, where he failed to score once in 28 games, resulting in him being loaned back to Dresden for the second year. Having grown up in the East, where players were officially regarded as amateurs, Rosler found it difficult to adapt when he moved to the West after reunification: "I suddenly saw more individualistic thinking, cliques, a powerful press and personal politics around team selection. The Wall was still there in some people's heads and in many ways I was naive."

Manchester City

In March 1994, Rosler joined Manchester City on trial. Given an opportunity in a reserve match against Burnley, he scored two goals, which resulted in a three-month loan. He made his first team debut the following Saturday, against Queens Park Rangers. A return of five goals in twelve games saw the move made permanent in the close season, reports of the transfer fee varying between £375,000 and £500,000.

After an ignominious start to the 1994–95 campaign, when he was sent off in a 3–0 opening day defeat at Arsenal, Rosler formed a productive partnership with Paul Walsh, and scored 22 league and cup goals despite missing several games through injury. In an FA cup match against Notts County he scored four goals, becoming the first Manchester City player to score four in an FA Cup tie since Johnny Hart in 1953. His performances that season meant he was the club's leading goalscorer, and he won the club's Player of the Year award.

At the start of the 1995–96 season, Alan Ball became manager and immediately changed the nature of the side. Despite City's obvious strengths down the flanks, the team was adapted to play through the middle of the park. With no supply line from the wings (City's other winger Nicky Summerbee often playing at right-back), and with the loss through injury of Beagrie and the shocking sale of Walsh, Rosler struggled in this season. Many felt that he and fellow striker Niall Quinn were too similar to play in a system that didn't feed strikers effectively and Rosler clearly became unhappy. Much publicised disagreements with the manager culminated in Rosler being dropped from the side, only to be brought on as a sub in the Manchester derby and immediately score a phenomenal goal. Rosler's goal celebrations saw him running to the bench, shouting at Ball and pointing to his name and squad number on the back of his shirt. City were relegated to Division One at the end of the campaign, but Rosler opted to stay with the Blues. Despite another difficult campaign, Rosler again finished top scorer and clearly benefited from the return to a 4–4–1–1 formation. After another spell out with injury, Rosler would eventually leave the Blues in May 1998 on a free transfer following relegation to Division Two.

In his four years at City he played 176 games, scoring 64 goals. He was admitted to City's "Hall of Fame" in December 2009.

Return to Germany

In the summer of 1998, Rosler returned to Germany joining Kaiserslautern, then reigning German champions, for one season. His most remarkable game there was on 9 December 1998 when he came on as a substitute against HJK Helsinki and scored a second half hat-trick as Kaiserslautern won 5–2, helping them to win their group in the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League, before going out in the quarter-finals to Bayern Munich. He then moved on to Tennis Borussia Berlin for the 1999–2000 season.

Southampton

When Tennis Borussia went bankrupt in the summer of 2000, Glenn Hoddle snapped Rosler up on a free transfer, but he was unable to become a regular in Saints' first team as James Beattie started to find his form (scoring 10 goals in 10 games in November and December). Rosler also suffered a groin injury which required surgery, keeping him out for several weeks. Although he was a whole-hearted and committed player, he only managed to score once for the Saints, in a Worthington Cup game at Mansfield.

Rosler scored the last ever goal at The Dell on 26 May 2001 in a friendly against Brighton and Hove Albion – who were selected as Southampton's opponents as they had been the stadium's first visitors when it opened in 1898 – as Saints won 1–0. However, the distinction of the last competitive goal at The Dell went to Rosler's team mate Matthew Le Tissier, who had scored a late winner in the 3–2 Premier League win over Arsenal seven days earlier.

In the following season, he only made a handful of appearances before being loaned out to West Bromwich Albion on 30 October 2001, as cover for the injured Scott Dobie. He made his debut away at Crystal Palace on 31 October 2001, and his only goal for Albion came in a 1–0 home win over Nottingham Forest four days later. Rosler played just five games for West Bromwich Albion, as he joined German side SpVgg Unterhaching on a free transfer in January 2002, who went on to win promotion as Division One runners-up at the end of the 2001–02 season.

Lillestrom

In July 2002, Rosler signed for Norwegian club Lillestrom. He played 11 matches and scored 10 goals for the Canaries in the latter part of the 2002 season.

After the first match of the season in 2003, in which he was the match winner in a 1–0 win over Bodo/Glimt, Rosler was diagnosed with cancer when x-rays discovered a tumour in his chest, and had to put an end to his playing career. After chemotherapy, he made a full recovery. While in remission he obtained his coaching badges, to enable him to continue working in football.

International career

Rosler made his debut for East Germany on 26 January 1990 in a 2–1 win over Kuwait. He was capped five times, scoring no goals. He also represented East Germany U21's at international level.

Lillestrom

After making a full recovery from lung cancer, he returned to Lillestrom, and took the manager's seat in 2005. He led the team to two successive fourth-place finishes in the league, and also took them to the final of the Norwegian Cup in 2005 and the Royal League final in 2006, subsequently losing both. These results failed to satisfy the Lillestrom board, and on 13 November 2006 he was sacked from his position along with assistant coach Gunnar Halle.

Viking

Rosler was appointed manager of Viking, another Norwegian team, on 22 November 2006, replacing Tom Nordlie, who took over Rosler's old job at Lillestrom. In the 2007 season he led Viking to a third place in the Norwegian Premier League. On 18 November 2009 it was announced that Rosler was leaving Viking.

Molde

On 31 August 2010, he was hired by Molde on a short-term contract. During Molde's last eight games of the season, he doubled the team's total number of points, avoided a single defeat, and saved them from relegation. He was replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in November 2010 ready for the start of the 2011 season.

Brentford

In November 2010, Rosler expressed his desire to return to the Premiership as a manager. In June 2011 he was appointed manager of Brentford on an initial two-year contract.

Rosler's first game in charge was a practice match against Strommen, which ended 0–0, while his first game open to fans was a 10–0 victory over Tonbridge Angels and his first competitive match in charge ended in a 2–0 win over Yeovil Town. Rosler had a successful first season managing at Brentford, finishing in ninth place with a total of 67 points, Brentford's highest league finish in six years.

In Rosler's second season in charge of Brentford they came within minutes of securing promotion from League One to the Championship. For their final game of the season, on 27 April 2013, they faced second placed Doncaster Rovers at Griffin Park, with Brentford in third place only a win would see his side promoted. In the dramatic final minute of added time and with the game poised at 0–0, Brentford won a penalty. On-loan striker Marcello Trotta insisted on taking the penalty rather than captain, Kevin O'Connor, hitting the crossbar. Doncaster counter-attacked from the rebound and James Coppinger scored the goal which guaranteed Doncaster's promotion as well as the league title. Brentford entered the play-offs, where they were drawn in the semi-final against Swindon Town.

Despite beating Swindon in an almost equally dramatic manner, eventually succeeding via a penalty shoot-out after a 4–4 aggregate scoreline. However promotion was never to come for Rosler's Brentford as they were beaten 2–1 in the play-off final by Yeovil Town at Wembley Stadium, after a poor first-half performance.

Following the drama and disappointment of the 2012–13 season, Rosler embarked upon a heavy overhaul of his squad in order to finally gain promotion to the Championship. In the summer transfer window. 13 players were either signed or loaned from other clubs whilst only three of last-season's first-team squad were sold. Rosler left the position of Brentford manager on 7 December 2013, having led a revival in the team's fortunes, winning seven of his final eight games. Under the stewardship of former Sporting Director Mark Warburton, the Bees achieved automatic promotion to the Championship on 18 April 2014. Long-serving player Kevin O'Connor paid tribute to Rosler at the end of the season, saying "Uwe got the ball rolling. We were a bang average League One side, but Uwe changed the mentality. Everything he did was all Premier League standard. He did amazing, so we’ll be saying thank you to him".

Wigan Athletic

On 7 December 2013, Rosler was appointed as the new manager of Championship side Wigan Athletic, taking over the position from Owen Coyle. His first game in charge came on 12 December 2013, a 2–1 loss against NK Maribor in the UEFA Europa League.

In March 2014, Rosler returned to Manchester City and led Wigan Athletic to a shock 2–1 victory over his old club at the City of Manchester Stadium in the quarter-final of the FA Cup. However, his team lost in the semi-finals to Arsenal at Wembley Stadium, 4–2 on penalties after a 1–1 draw. After finishing fifth in the Championship, Wigan qualified for the play-offs, but lost in the semi-final to eventual winners Queens Park Rangers after goals from Charlie Austin.

With Wigan being amongst the early favourites for promotion during the 2014–15 season, on 13 November 2014, Rosler was sacked by Wigan Athletic after the club fell into the relegation zone. The then Wigan Chairman Dave Whelan proclaimed that despite sacking Rosler "I still rate him as a very, very good manager and I think he'll get another job very quickly and I wish him good luck" and Whelan revealed that it was a "harsh decison" to sack him after guiding Wigan to the Championship play-off semi-finals and FA Cup semi-finals months earlier. He was replaced as Wigan Athletic manager by Malky Mackay and then Gary Caldwell as the season ended with relegation.

Leeds United

On 20 May 2015, he was appointed as the head coach of Championship side Leeds United on a two-year deal. He had rejected a job offer from 1860 Munchen in February 2015 in hopes of landing another job in England. As part of his backroom staff, he was joined at Leeds by assistant head coach Rob Kelly, goalkeeper coach Richard Hartis and first team coach Julian Darby. On 8 August, on the opening day of the Football League Championship season, Rosler's first game in charge ended in a 1–1 draw against Burnley after a goal from Mirco Antenucci. On 19 October, he was sacked after just two wins from 12 games in charge, following a 2–1 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion which left Leeds in 18th place in the Championship. On the same day, he was replaced as Leeds' head coach by former Rotherham manager Steve Evans.

Managerial style

Rosler is renowned for his teams to play a high, pressing style of football, and is also a fan of squad rotation among players, with 4-3-3 or 3-5-2 his favoured formations. Rosler compared his style and brand of football similar to the philosophies of German compatriot Jurgen Klopp, with Rosler describing the style of football as 'heavy metal' attacking football, with powerful quick football with quick transitions from attack to defence.

Personal life

Born and brought up in East Germany as the socialist regime was collapsing, during his time at Lokomotive Leipzig Rosler was interviewed by the Stasi secret police organisation, who attempted to force him to inform on colleagues seeking to defect to the West in exchange for the Stasi allowing him to continue his fledgling football career unimpeded – only the furious intervention of his manager saved him from their attentions.

Having been a fan of English football from his childhood, Rosler said that he found his "home" in England during his time with Manchester City, and described the formation of his bond with the City fans as the "biggest achievement in my career". Diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2003, he credited his recovery to the support of the fans of the club, and said that hearing them sing his name at a game while he lay in hospital made his bond with the club "unbreakable". Rosler has stated on several occasions that his ambition for his managerial career is to eventually become manager of the Manchester club.

Rosler has a Norwegian wife, with whom he has had two sons. His eldest is named Colin after Colin Bell, and is a member of Manchester City's academy, while his younger son is named Tony after Tony Book – both Bell and Book are former Manchester City players, both considered club legends.

In 2013, Rosler's autobiography Knocking Down Walls was released.

Club

Managerial statistics