Steffen Karl
Steffen Karl ( born February 3, 1970 in Hohenmolsen ) is a former German football player. He has played league football for FC Halle Chemistry, Borussia Dortmund and Hertha BSC.
Sports career
About the company sports teams (BSG ) Medical Hall - Nietleben and gallery hall came the 12 -year-old Steffen Karl 1982 Halle football focus Hallescher FC Chemistry ( HFC). At 15 he was discovered for the U-16 selection of the GDR and graduated to 1989 31 caps for various junior national teams. With the U-18 team, he was third in the 1988 European Junior Championships and at the U- 20 World Cup he played in all three group stage matches the GDR selection, then retired from the competition. When HFC he played until 1988 in the junior team and completed an apprenticeship as an electrician. For the season 1988/89 he was formally included in the first men's team. But already in the second half of the season 1987/88, Karl had come to his first missions in the GDR Oberliga. His start in the East German Elite League he gave on April 2, 1988 in the meeting of the 19th game day HFC - 1.FC Lok Leipzig. While he was there even a substitute, he stood in his other games until the end of the season as a midfielder five more times in the starting lineup. In the following season 1988/89 he was with 25 missions in 26 league matches as a midfielder already a regular player of Halle. In the summer of 1989 his plans to escape from East Germany were known what the immediate exclusion from the HFC and the transfer to the third-rate BSG steel rolling mill Hettstedt meant. In November 1989 he was drafted for military service.
In the turmoil of the political changes of 1989, he sat down in January 1990 by the army from, left the still existing GDR and signed a contract with the Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund. There he came in March and April 1990, still two Bundesliga inserts. In the 1990/91 season, Charles was only used by coach Horst Koeppel 18 Gameday at. After he had been seven times as a midfielder in the starting eleven, he was then summoned only as a substitute. Only under Ottmar Hitzfeld succeeded Charles to establish itself in 1991/92 as a midfielder in the starting eleven. However, in the following two seasons, he fell back into the status of a replacement player. At the end of 1993 Charles retired from Borussia. Of the 140 point games during his time in Dortmund Karl played 72 games in which he scored two goals.
For the rest of the season Karl was loaned to the English first division club Manchester City, for whom he played six league games and scored one goal. For the season 1994/95 he spent a year in Switzerland, for FC Sion, until he returned to Germany in 1995 to Hertha BSC in the Bundesliga 2. In Berlin, he became a regular player and increased with Hertha in the summer of 1997 in the Bundesliga. After a year of the Bundesliga in 1998 Karl went back to the 2nd Bundesliga for FC St. Pauli. After two years in Hamburg Karl moved first to Vålerenga Oslo to Norway and a year later by Bulgaria to Lokomotiv Sofia. There could not gain a foothold and went back to Germany in 2003 to the third division FC Chemnitz. In Chemnitz, he was fired in the wake of the football scandal in May 2005 and joined in the summer league team VfB Fortuna Chemnitz the country, where he ended his career as an athlete at the end of the season 2007/ 08. As a recreational soccer player, he played then unterklassig at Victoria Einsiedel.
For Dortmund and Hertha BSC, the midfielder completed between 1990 and 1998 a total of 99 Bundesliga games. His greatest successes were the runner-up in 1992 and reaching the UEFA Cup final in 1993 with Borussia Dortmund. In the final match, which was lost to Juventus, Karl came as both in the first leg and the second leg are used. For Hertha BSC and FC St. Pauli, he completed 94 games in the Bundesliga 2. Between 2003 and 2005 Karl played 51 times for the Chemnitz FC in the Regionalliga.
Trivia
Steffen Karl was known for his tremendous shot (full span ). He was preferably used for indoor soccer tournaments as a goalkeeper. In addition to his talent at this position, the team had the advantage of another fielder who, when he was released played accordingly, could begin his infamous shots on goal. Due to its fire power and his surname he was team internally, similar to a well-known in the 90s Obi- advertising, called "Iron John".
Involvement in the football betting scandal in 2005
In March 2005, Steffen Karl was arrested after a warrant of prosecutor Berlin -Tiergarten in Chemnitz. In connection with the football betting scandal in 2005, he was accused of having 04, phone offered on the final day of the season 2003 / the former goalkeeper of Energie Cottbus, Georg Koch 20,000 euros, that this game against SSV Jahn Regensburg " a, two balls " would be the score. Koch refused, however, and also sat in this game, which ended 3-0 for Cottbus, only on the bench.
Furthermore, Steffen Karl should cause against payment in the Regional game of SC Paderborn 07 against the Chemnitz FC a penalty to manipulate the run by Robert Hoyzer game. The game ended 4-0, with Paderborn had two penalties. However, Charles was no detectable manipulation, since the two penalty caused by other players.
After three days of detention, he was released from prison. As a consequence of the Chemnitz FC sparked on May 22, 2005 to Charles Steffen contract with immediate effect. During the trial against him Karl confessed manipulation attempts in two games. He was sentenced on 8 December 2005 to a nine-month suspended prison sentence.