Roman Weidenfeller

Roman Weidenfeller (born 6 August 1980) is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Bundesliga clubs 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Borussia Dortmund, as well as the Germany national team.

Weidenfeller spent 16 seasons with Dortmund and won both the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal twice. In 2014, he won the FIFA World Cup with Germany.

During his youth years, Weidenfeller played for Sportfreunde Eisbachtal. He then made his professional debut in 1997, after his performances at the 1997 FIFA U-17 World Championship.

In 1998, Weidenfeller transferred to the 1. FC Kaiserslautern youth team and later was used in the second team. For the 2000–01 season he was promoted to the first team but made only six league appearances in two years.

Weidenfeller moved to German champions Borussia Dortmund in 2002 on a free transfer as a possible replacement for Jens Lehmann, who had moved to Arsenal in 2003. Weidenfeller had reportedly been unhappy at Kaiserslautern, where he was used mainly as a backup to Georg Koch. His debut for Dortmund came on 17 December 2003 against his former club, Kaiserslautern, in a 1–0 loss.

In 2005, Weidenfeller underwent surgery following a meniscus tear in his left knee during training.

Early in the 2007–08 season, Weidenfeller was given a three-match ban and fined €10,000 for racist insults leveled against Schalke 04 striker Gerald Asamoah. Asamoah originally reported Weidenfeller after a match on 18 August 2007 between the two clubs, where the incident occurred after a clash between the two in the 51st minute. Weidenfeller offered an apology to Asamoah following the news reports but denied making the statement. Due to a partial tear of the medial ligament in the right knee, he missed the DFB-Pokal final towards the end of the season, which was lost with 2–1 against Bayern Munich. Fellow goalkeeper Marc Ziegler would replace him.

Weidenfeller won the Bundesliga with Dortmund in 2011 and went on to win the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double with the club in 2012, saving a penalty taken by Arjen Robben in the Bundesliga-clinching match. In the cup final, he was substituted for Mitchell Langerak in the 33rd minute following a collision with Mario Gómez. His team would beat Bayern Munich with 5–2.

On 6 May 2013, Weidenfeller signed a contract extension with Borussia Dortmund, keeping him at the club until 2016.

From 1999 until 2001, Roman Weidenfeller competed in three matches for the national under-21 team of Germany.

In 2005, he was part of the B-national team of Germany for which he kept his goal once, also known as Team 2006, as it was the development team for the 2006 FIFA World Cup on homesoil. Nonetheless he would not become part of Jürgen Klinsmann's final World Cup squad.

In November 2013, Weidenfeller was called up to the Germany national squad for his first time for the friendlies against Italy and England. He received his first cap when he started against England at the Wembley Stadium on 19 November 2013, making him the oldest ever German goalkeeper débutant. He then appeared for the game against Cameroon, where the game ended tied at 2–2. He made his third appearance in the next game against Armenia where Germany won 6–1. Both games were international friendlies.

He was nominated as a reserve keeper behind Manuel Neuer for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, where the German team won the title a fourth time, but Weidenfeller wasn't used in any match. Weidenfeller made his first appearance in the Germany national team in a competitive match against Gibraltar during the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying in June 2015. His international farewell came with this match after winning five caps in total.

Bronze at the UEFA European Under-16 Championship 1997

FIFA U-17 World Cup Best Goalkeeper: 1997

Fußballer des Monats: March 2005, May 2005

Kicker Goalkeeper of the Year: 2005, 2013

Kicker highest-rated Bundesliga goalkeeper: 2005, 2006

Kicker German Football Ranking – World Class: Summer 2013