Dirk Heinen

Dirk Heinen

Dirk Heinen ( born December 3, 1970 in Cologne ) is a former German football goalkeeper.

Dirk Heinen played in the E and D youth at Rot-Weiß Cologne ruler among others, together with Dirk Lottner before he was by the then youth leaders Bayer Leverkusen, Reiner Calmund, poached.

In 1998 he suffered as the undisputed first-choice goalkeeper at Bayer 04 Leverkusen after a clash a fractured skull and subsequently lost his place to Adam Matysek.

From January 2000 to June 2002 Heinen played as a goalkeeper for Eintracht Frankfurt, after a season in Denizlispor in Turkey. 2003/ 04 he finally moved as a substitute goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand behind to VfB Stuttgart. In March 2006, Heinen pulled a hamstring tear to the training. In the 2006/07 season Michael Langer then the new number 2 was behind Hildebrand. On 19 May 2007, he was the first German football champions VfB Stuttgart and finished after his active career.

Dirk Heinen then wandered with his family to Waterford in Ireland (his wife is a native Irish ), to get away from football.

On 31 January 2008 Heinen signed due to the serious injury of Rowen Fernandez signed a contract with Arminia Bielefeld until 30 June 2008. When the fit-again Fernandez 96 injured again on 24 Gameday during the game at Hanover, Heinen came off the bench and came to a successful Bundesliga comeback by his club, among others, with a brilliant save in the final minute to secure an away point.

At the end of the season 2007/ 08 he ended his career for good. Overall Heinen played 158 Bundesliga games. Since end of his career he worked for the Football Association of Ireland as a goalkeeper coach of County Waterford and as a fitness coach of the Waterford United.

Others

In February 2006, he participated in the show Wetten, dass. in part, in a betting candidate tried by a table football kicker 4 table footballs to shoot against him to score. Dirk Heinen could hold a ball, the bet lost the bet candidate for a missed shot at the bar.