Sebastian Kael: biography, rating, statistics, football player profile

In recent years Dortmund "Borussia" has risen to incredible heights. Twice she was able to leave behind the legendary Munich Bayern Munich in the race for the championship, and once even reached the final of the most prestigious football competition in the world - the Champions League (where she was defeated by the very "Bavaria"). This club has its high-class players, strong and promising pupils. And also there are their legends - such as Sebastian Kael. He spent most of his career in this club, became his captain and was a pillar of the center of the field, one of the strongest supporting midfielders of his time. And even when he was old, Sebastian Kael remained a reliable player, who at the right time could replace an injured, tired or disqualified world-class player. How did the sports career of this German football player develop?

Biography

Sebastian Kael was born on February 13, 1980 in the small German town of Fulda. About his childhood is not known as much as we would like - in five years he was in the football academy of the club "Larbach", at the age of 14 moved to the Academy of Borussia from Fulda. If you look at his non-football life, it is worth noting, already at age 23 he became a participant in the project "School without Racism", and then the advertising ambassador of the project to combat child prostitution. At the moment he is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the German Youth Football Foundation. On the personal life of Sebastian Kehl, unfortunately, also little is known - only that he lives in a civil marriage with a girl named Tina, from whom he had a child in 2006.

Carier start

Like many young guys, Sebastian Kael did not immediately find himself in the academy of a strong club - he changed several places, each time moving to more and more promising establishments for him. Only in 1996, at the age of 16, he was in the academy of the club, which was at that time in the second Bundesliga, "Hanover", - it was with this club that in two years he concluded his first professional contract. Naturally, he did not immediately get a place in the first team - in his first season he played only nine games and scored one goal. But there is no sense in watching the goals of the goals, since Sebastian Kael is a defensive player. He is a defensive midfielder, "breakwater", "destroyer", that is, that football player of the center of the field, who is responsible for destroying enemy attacks. And in the next season he was able to show his abilities in fuller measure - he played 26 matches and again scored one goal. However, the player was clearly promising, so he decided to move to the first Bundesliga - the most prestigious tournament in Germany. The contract with him was signed by Freiburg, who paid a hundred thousand euro for the transfer of the 20-year-old guy.

Disclosure in Freiburg

It was "Freiburg" that became the place where Sebastian Kael could fully open. Footballer from the very first match began to perform in the first team, and in the end he spent 27 games for the new club in the first season, scoring four goals. Naturally, this did not go unnoticed by larger clubs. If we consider the rating of football players of the time, the young Sebastian was one of the most promising in the whole of Germany, so he could not refuse the offer that came to him during the winter transfer window of the season 01/02. The first half of the season, the midfielder played at the base of "Freiburg", coming out on the field as much as twenty-two times and again scoring four goals. But the second 21-year-old player has already started in a T-shirt Dortmund Borussia, which paid for his transfer of 3.2 million euros.

Career in Borussia

Not every player can boast of the devotion to his club, which showed Sebastian Kael in "Borussia". From the age of 21 he was in favor of this club - and he did not leave until the very end of his career. If you take the rating of players loyal to your club, then Kael will definitely be in it. He will be surpassed only by players who started their careers in the clubs where it was finished - Sebastian also spent three and a half years in other clubs.

But with FC Borussia he definitely had a great career - from the very first match he was a player of the basic line-up and stayed with him almost to the very end of his career, which he finished at 35 when most players are already sitting quietly on the bench. Kael all the time was at the start - and his statistics violate only the seasons 06/07, 09/10 and 10/11, when he was seriously injured and was eliminated for most of the playing time. In total for thirteen and a half years in "Borussia" he played in 353 games and scored 24 goals. But again, it is worth paying attention to the fact that goals for the defensive midfielder are not the main thing, he coped with his work of the destroyer of enemy attacks differently from the first to the last match. And it was only in the summer of 2015 that it was announced that Sebastian Kael was completing his football career - at the moment he took a break from football and so far he has not decided whether he is going to continue in any future football activity as a coach, agent, scout and so on Further.

National team appearances

Kael was a pretty strong player, but Germany always had world-class performers in the middle of the field, so he did not always compete in the team.

His debut for the national team Sebastian made in 2001 in a friendly match against the Slovak national team. His first official match was a qualifying game for the 2002 World Cup against England, where Kehl was replaced by 12 minutes. As a result, he went to the 2002 World Cup, where he held the entire group stage on the bench, but was replaced in the break instead of Marco Remer in the match of the eighth final against Paraguay. And in the quarterfinal against the US team, he generally went into the starting lineup. But this experiment did not appeal to coach Feller, so the remaining matches of the tournament Kel spent on the bench.

The failed European Championship in 2004 Kael held in reserve, and in his last official tournament, the 2006 World Cup, he came on as a substitute in the first leg of the group stage and in the 1/8 finals, and in the semifinals he was forced to leave the base instead of the injured Torsten Frings. He played all 90 minutes of regular time and all 30 minutes extra, but the Germans could not beat the Italians. In the match for third place against the Portuguese national team, Kel also came out in the base, and this match the Germans could already win.

Trophies

During his long career, Sebastian Kael collected a good collection of trophies - he became the champion of Germany three times with Dortmund Borussia, with whom he won one German Cup and two German Super Cups, and also became a finalist of the Champions League. As for the international level, here at Kehl Germany could not take a single trophy. Therefore, he was content only with silver medals of the 2002 and 2006 world championships, and also with the 2005 Confederations Cup bronze medal.

Player Rating

The rating of players is a subjective concept, but one thing is for sure: Kael will always be one of the best and favorite players for his club. Judging solely from a gaming point of view, he reached the peak of his career in 2006 - and, perhaps, could grow further, if not for a serious injury that put him out of action for almost a year.