Marco Reich

Marco Reich

Personal information
Full name	Marco Franzisco Thomas Reich
Date of birth	30 December 1977
Place of birth	Meisenheim, West Germany
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Playing position	Midfielder, Winger
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1996–2001	1. FC Kaiserslautern	138	(12)
2001–2002	1. FC Köln	24	(0)
2002–2004	Werder Bremen	17	(0)
2004–2005	Derby County	50	(7)
2005	Red Star Belgrade	0	(0)
2005–2007	Crystal Palace	27	(2)
2007–2008	Kickers Offenbach	17	(0)
2008–2009	Walsall	19	(3)
2009	Jagiellonia Białystok[1]	15	(2)
2010–2011	WAC St. Andrä	42	(15)
2011–2012	SK Austria Klagenfurt	24	(8)
2012–2013	Villacher SV	26	(11)
National team
1997–1998	Germany U-21	11	(2)
1999	Germany	1	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 9 February 2014. † Appearances (goals)

Marco Reich (born 30 December 1977) is a German retired footballer.

Club career

He made his professional debut in October 1996 with Kaiserslautern in the 2. Bundesliga and subsequently played five seasons for the club, four of them in the Bundesliga after they were promoted there in 1997. He also won the Bundesliga champions title with Kaiserslautern in 1998.^[2]

In the summer of 2001, he moved to Köln and spent one season with the club, making 24 Bundesliga appearances without scoring a goal. He then moved to Werder Bremen next summer, subsequently spending one season and a half with the club, but only making 17 Bundesliga appearances with no goals scored before moving to Derby County of then Football League First Division in January 2004. At Derby, he spent a bit more than one season and a half before moving to Crystal Palace in September 2005. The highlight of his time at Palace was arguably when he scored the winning goal to knock European champions Liverpool out of the 2005/06 League Cup.^[3]

Reich also won one international cap for Germany, playing 78 minutes in their 3–3 draw with Colombia in a friendly match played in Miami, Florida on 9 February 1999.

He has a reputation for starting strongly at clubs, before fading away and falling out of favour, as has been the case with his last three clubs. At Werder Bremen, he was earmarked as the replacement for Oliver Bierhoff in the German national team, before losing his first-team place and moving to Derby County on a free transfer. There, a series of virtuoso performances helped to keep the club in the Championship, and he also gave many autographs to fans. He eventually left the club in much the same way as Werder Bremen, signing for Crystal Palace. Marco then moved to German side Kickers Offenbach on 30 January 2007 on a free transfer.

He joined Walsall on a free transfer in August 2008 after being released by Offenbach following their relegation from the second tier of German football.^[4] On 2 May 2009, he signed a contract with Jagiellonia after being released by Walsall. He has recently been critical of the standard of football in the Ekstraklasa, comparing it to the lower divisions of the German League, although he did speak favourably about teams like Wisla Krakow and Lech Poznan.^[5] In January 2010, he signed for WAC St. Andrä.

Honours

1. FC Kaiserslautern

• Bundesliga: 1997–98
• DFB-Pokal: 1995–96

SV Werder Bremen

• Bundesliga: 2003–04

Jagiellonia Białystok

• Polish Cup: 2009–10

References

1. "Statystyki Jagiellonii w sezonie 2009/2010 – po 30. kolejce" (in Polish). Jagiellonia Białystok. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
2. "Marco Reich im Interview: "Wofür soll ich mich rechtfertigen?"" (in German). sport.freenet.de. Archived from the original on 5 January 2010.
3. "Crystal Palace 2–1 Liverpool". BBC. 25 October 2005. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
4. "Walsall snap up midfielder Reich". BBC Sport. 4 August 2008. Retrieved 26 January 2009.
5. Jensen, Mika (30 September 2009). "Reich: Ekstraklasa like Germany's 3rd division". polishsoca.com. Retrieved 10 February 2013.

External links

• Marco Reich at 90minut.pl (Polish)
• Marco Reich career statistics at Soccerbase
• Marco Reich at National-Football-Teams.com