Thomas Klein (soccer player, 1965)

Thomas Klein
Personnel
birthday	April 23, 1965
position	striker
Juniors
Years	station
	SV Niederkirchen
	1. FC Kaiserslautern
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
0000-1989	SV Edenkoben
1989-1990	1. FC Nuremberg	12 (1)
1990-1991	FC 08 Homburg	2 (0)
1992-1994	SpVgg Bayreuth
1994-1995	VfR Mannheim	6 (0)
1995-1996	SC Hauenstein	11 (3)
1996–	SV Weingarten (Palatinate)
1 Only league games are given.

Thomas Klein (born April 23, 1965 ) is a former German soccer player .

Career

Klein grew up as one of nine siblings in Niederkirchen, West Palatinate . One of his brothers is the former Bundesliga player Volker Klein , who played in the Bundesliga when Thomas Klein was a child. Thomas received his first football training at the Westphalian amateur club SV Niederkirchen. The talented young player caught sight of Ernst Diehl , who was the youth coach at 1. FC Kaiserslautern at the time. Klein first switched to the B2 youth team of 1. FCK, but then also went through the B1 and A youth teams of the former Bundesliga club. Growing out of the junior division, Klein turned down the offer to continue playing with the FCK amateurs. Instead, he moved to the then club division FK Clausen in 1983 . Klein played two seasons there and then moved to the Palatinate league club VfL Neustadt , where his brother Jürgen also played. The team was trained by Hans-Günter Neues at the time . Klein's football career was interrupted by military service, which ensured that Klein initially only acted as a football player. Together with brother Jürgen, he went back to the home club SV Niederkirchen in 1986 and initially played in the B class. With the little brothers, the West Palatinate rose twice in a row to the district league. In the summer of 1988, the ex-trainer news reported, who steered the West Palatinate to SV Edenkoben, who had recently been promoted to the top division. In the subsequent, third-rate league season 1988/98, the Vorderpfälz team sensationally won the championship with Klein as top scorer and thus qualified for the promotion games to the 2nd Bundesliga. Due to an injury, Klein was not in full possession of his strength in the promotion games and could not prove his forward skills. SV Edenkoben missed promotion to the second division, but this season was worth it for Klein, he was awarded a contract with Bundesliga club 1. FC Nürnberg . At the club he joined the team of coach Hermann Gerland from the 1989/89 season . In the storm he ran alongside Souleyman Sané , Frank Türr and Christian Hausmann . He made his debut on matchday 1 in a 3-2 away defeat at Bayern Munich , and played ten more games that season. He scored his first goal on matchday 33, with the final score of 1: 1 against Bayer Uerdingen . In the next season he only played one game in the first half of the season and was loaned to the then second division club FC 08 Homburg during the winter break , for which he only played two professional games due to injury. After a cartilage damage in his knee, Klein was reamateurised from the 1990/91 season and then played one season at Türkiyemspor Berlin, from 1991 to 1993 two seasons for SpVgg Bayreuth and from 1993 to 1994 for VfR Mannheim . Then the West Palatinate was drawn back to regions closer to home. The next stations were SC Hauenstein in the 1994/95 season and VfL Grünstadt in the 1995/96 season.

Web links

• Thomas Klein in the database of fussballdaten.de
• Thomas Klein in the database of weltfussball.de
• Thomas Klein in the database of transfermarkt.de