Tom Christian Merkens

Tom Christian Merkens
Personnel
birthday	January 20, 1990
place of birth	Germany
size	171 cm
position	midfield
Juniors
Years	station
until 2000	FC Wacker Neustadt
2000-2009	Hannover 96
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2009–2012	Hanover 96 II	62 (2)
2012-2013	TSV Havelse	32 (4)
2013-2016	VfL Osnabrück	22 (0)
2016-2018	TSV Havelse	46 (5)
1 Only league games are given. As of May 29, 2018

Tom Christian Merkens (born January 20, 1990 ) is a former German football player in the position of defensive midfielder .

Career

After the youth club FC Wacker Neustadt, which Merkens stayed with until 2000, he went through all youth teams at Hannover 96 in the following years until 2009 . Under coach Valérien Ismaël , the agile midfielder was part of the 96 reserve team. From 2012 to 2013 Merkens then played at TSV Havelse , where he was also a regular player and thus attracted VfL Osnabrück's attention, who signed him to the third division season 2013/14 , making this Merkens' first professional station. He had his first third division appearance at the start of the season on July 21, 2013 in the 3-0 away win against Chemnitzer FC , when he was on the starting line-up and was substituted for David Pisot in the 89th minute .

Merkens quickly fought for a regular place until he suffered a serious ankle injury on March 1, 2014 in the derby against Preußen Münster after a foul by Amaury Bischoff . Bischoff was then sent off and later apologized several times to Merkens. After several operations, he was out for almost a year. In September 2015, immediately after the final whistle of the game between Osnabrück and Münster, Merkens ran onto the pitch in everyday clothes and pushed Bischoff to the ground. The President of Osnabrück apologized personally to Bischoff, who refrained from filing a criminal complaint. On October 13, 2016, it became known that the midfielder, who had lost a club in the summer of 2016, will join TSV Havelse , for whom he had already played before the station in Osnabrück.

In 2018 Merkens announced that he would have to end his footballing career due to the long-term consequences of his injury in 2014. He moves to San Francisco to study for a Master of International Business .

Web links

• Tom Christian Merkens in the weltfussball.de database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Great start for Osnabrück (kicker.de, accessed on August 15, 2013)
2. ^ Osnabrück: Concern for Tom Christian Merkens ; 3-liga.com.
3. ↑ Memorization comeback is getting closer: “Groping in the dark is over” ; Osnabrück newspaper.
4. ↑ Scandal against Münster: Osnabrücks Merkens takes revenge for broken ankle spiegel.de September 24, 2015
5. ↑ Tom Merkens signs contract and is about to make a comeback at TSV Havelse
6. ↑ Ex-VfL midfielder Tom Christian Merkens: Pain cannot be endured , noz.de, August 29, 2018.