Uwe Rösler

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Uwe Rösler
Personal information
Full name	Uwe Rösler
Date of birth	November 15, 1968 (age 38)
Place of birth	Altenburg, East Germany
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Centre Forward
Youth clubs
	Traktor Starken Chemie Leipzig
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1988-1991 1991-1994 1992-1993 1994-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2002 2001 2002 2002-2003	1. FC Magdeburg Dynamo Dresden 1. FC Nürnberg (loan) Manchester City 1. FC Kaiserslautern Tennis Borussia Berlin Southampton West Bromwich Albion (loan) SpVgg Unterhaching Lillestrøm S.K.	062 (22) 040 0(4) 028 0(0) 153 (50) 027 0(8) 028 0(6) 024 0(0) 005 0(1)
National team
	East Germany	005 0(0)
Teams managed
2005-2006 2006-	Lillestrøm S.K. Viking F.K.
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Uwe Rösler (born November 15, 1968 in Altenburg, East Germany) is a German football manager, who, as of January 2007, is in charge of Viking F.K. in the Norwegian Premier League.

Rösler was previously a successful player who played for several clubs, most notably Manchester City (1994-1998), where he was the leading goalscorer for three consecutive seasons from 1995-96 to 1997-98, and Kaiserslautern, where he played in the UEFA Champions League. In addition, Rösler played five times for his country (East Germany).

Contents 1 Playing career 1.1 Germany 1.2 Manchester City 1.3 Return to Germany 1.4 Southampton 1.5 West Bromwich Albion 1.6 Lillestrøm 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Germany

Rösler started his career in his native country, joining 1. FC Magdeburg in 1988 where he spent 3 seasons before moving on to Dynamo Dresden in August 1991. He spent the 1992-93 season on loan with 1. FC Nürnberg where he failed to score once in 28 games.

[edit] Manchester City

In March 1994 Rösler joined Manchester City for a fee of £750,000. The start of 1994-95 season proved bountiful for Rösler. Another German striker, Jürgen Klinsmann was also scoring prolifically for Tottenham Hotspur. Uwe was famously asked by the TV commentator Clive Tyldesley after an early league match against Everton (4-0), "There are inevitable comparisons with yourself and Jürgen Klinsmann at the moment - do you know him?" "Yes, urgh, from the telly.", Uwe replied. Another quote from Rösler when asked about his popularity with fans was, "I work everytime hard and the supporters like this." Such was his popularity that a group of fans even carried an 'inflatable Uwe' doll around on pre-season tours of the Isle of Man and Norway.

Despite the topsy-turvy nature of City's campaign in 1994-95, Rosler managed 22 league and cup goals despite missing several games through injury. Rösler's partnership with fellow city hero Paul Walsh, and their supply line from winger Peter Beagrie were a source of delight for Blues in a highly emotional season. Many believe that if City's defence had been stronger that season, things would have ended very differently.

At the start of the 1995-96 season, Alan Ball became manager and immediately changed the nature of the side. Despite City's obvious strengths down the flanks, the team was adapted to play through the middle of the park. With no supply line from the wings (City's other winger Nicky Summerbee often playing at right-back), and with the loss through injury of Beagrie and the shocking sale of Walsh, Rösler struggled in this season. Many felt that he and fellow striker Niall Quinn were too similar to play in a system that didn't feed strikers effectively and Rösler clearly became unhappy. Much publicised disagreements with the manager culminated in Rösler being dropped from the side, only to be brought on as a sub in the Manchester derby and immediately score a phenominal goal. Rösler's goal celebrations saw him running to the bench, shouting at Ball and pointing to his name and squad number on the back of his shirt. City were relegated at the end of the campaign but opted to stay with the Blues. Despite another difficult campaign, Rösler again finished top scorer ad clearly benefitted from the return to a 4-4-1-1 formation. After another spell out with injury, Rösler would eventually leave the Blues in May 1998 on a free transfer following relegation to Division 2. In his 4 years at City he played 181 games, scoring 65 goals.

Despite the heartbreak of Rösler's years at Maine Road, he will remain forever a hero in the eyes of the City faithful, a fighter, an entertainer and a gentleman. The esteem in which he is held was made clear when he was given a standing ovation on returning to the club for a visit and the show of support from fans during his fight against cancer.

[edit] Return to Germany

In the summer of 1998, Rösler returned to Germany joining Kaiserslautern for one season, heling them to win their group in the 1998-99 UEFA Champions League, going out in the quarter-finals to Bayern Munich. He then moved on to Tennis Borussia Berlin for the 1999-2000 seaon.

[edit] Southampton

When TB Berlin went bankrupt in the summer of 2000, Glenn Hoddle snapped Rösler up on a free transfer, but he was unable to become a regular in Saints' first team as James Beattie started to find his form (scoring 10 goals in 10 games in November and December). Rösler also suffered a groin injury which required surgery, keeping him out for several weeks. Although he was a whole-hearted and committed player, he only managed to score once for the Saints, in a Worthington Cup game at Mansfield.

Rösler scored the last ever goal at The Dell on 26 May 2001 in a friendly against Brighton and Hove Albion as Saints won 1-0.

In the following season, he only made a handful of appearances before spending November on loan at West Bromwich Albion, and then moving back to Germany joining Unterhaching on a free transfer in January 2002.

[edit] West Bromwich Albion

Rösler played a minor role in West Bromwich Albion's promotion season in 2001-02. On loan from Southampton, he played five games for the Baggies, scoring one goal.

[edit] Lillestrøm

In July 2002 he signed with Norwegian club Lillestrøm S.K. and became the leading goal-scorer for the club.

After only the first match of the season in 2003, in which he was the match winner in a 1-0 win over Bodø/Glimt, Rösler was diagnosed with cancer and had to put an end to his playing career. Luckily, with the support from his wife Cecilie, family and friends and his extreme fighting-spirit, Uwe Rösler won the most important match of his life, and has now recovered fully from the disease.

In the 2005 and 2006 seasons, Rösler was the coach of Lillestrøm S.K. in the Norwegian Premier League. He led Lillestrøm to two succesive fourth places in the league, and took them to the final of the Norwegian Cup in 2005 and the Royal League final in 2006, losing both. These results failed to satisfy the Lillestrøm board however, and on November 13, 2006 he was sacked from his position along with assistant coach Gunnar Halle.

Rösler was appointed manager of Viking F.K., another Norwegian team, on November 22, 2006, replacing Tom Nordlie, who took over Rösler's old job at Lillestrøm in an ironic turn of events.

[edit] References

• Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (2003). In That Number - A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology. ISBN 0-9534474-3-X. 

[edit] External links

• Uwe Rösler career stats at Soccerbase
• Biography on Manchester City Fans website

Preceded by Arne Erlandsen	Lillestrøm S.K. manager 2005-2006	Succeeded by Tom Nordlie
Preceded by Tom Nordlie	Viking F.K. manager 2007–	Succeeded by Incumbent

Viking F.K. - Current Squad
1 Austbø | 2 Gabrielsen | 3 Steenslid | 4 Abelsson | 5 Pereira | 6 Gaarde | 8 Svenning | 9 Ijeh | 10 Ødegaard | 11 Berg | 12 Kristiansen | 13 Danielsen | 15 Soma | 16 Tengesdal | 17 Samuelsen | 19 Nygaard | 20 Stokholm | 23 Motland | 26 Andersen | 28 Bjarnason | 33 Asper |  Pimpong | Manager: Rösler