Football Player's Biography 7: René Adler

Date of birth	15 January 1985 (1985-01-15) (age 26)
Place of birth	Leipzig, East Germany
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper

René Adler (born 15 January 1985 in Leipzig) is a German footballer who plays as a goalkeeper in the German Bundesliga for Bayer Leverkusen and for the German national team.

Career

He started at age six playing for VfB Leipzig's youth side. After nine years for Leipzig, Adler joined the youth system of Bayer 04 Leverkusen.^[1]

Club career

He made his Bundesliga debut in dramatic fashion on 25 February 2007 against league leaders Schalke 04.^[2] With starting goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt serving a suspension, Adler saved ten shots on goal, repelling Schalke's repeated attacks. A breakaway goal by Stefan Kießling in the 85th minute gave Leverkusen a 1-0 upset victory. Leverkusen manager Michael Skibbe praised Adler's "world-class saves".^[3] His strengths are his quick reactions. He stopped Schalke's record of 13 games unbeaten, Stuttgart's record of five games unbeaten and Hamburg's four-game winning spree with a saved penalty kick against Rafael van der Vaart.

International career

Adler has been a club captain at all levels of competition and at the German Under-19 championships he was one of the star players of the tournament.
Adler has made four appearances for the German U-21 team under the leadership of Dieter Eilts. He was part of the German team that finished as runners-up in Euro 2008. After the retirement of Jens Lehmann and death of Robert Enke, he became first choice during the World Cup qualifying.^[4] He made his debut for Germany on 11 October 2008 in a FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifier against Russia. Despite having been confirmed as Germany's main team goalkeeper for the FIFA World Cup 2010, a serious rib injury prevented him from travelling to South Africa. He has been capped ten times by the German national football team.