Football Player's Biography 7: Per Mertesacker

Full name	Per Mertesacker
Date of birth	29 September 1984 (1984-09-29) (age 26)
Place of birth	Hannover, West Germany
Height	1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)^[1]
Playing position	Centre back

Per Mertesacker (German pronunciation: [ˈpeːɐ̯ ˈmɛʁtəzakɐ]; born 29 September 1984 in Hannover) is a German footballer who plays as a defender for Werder Bremen and the Germany national football team. Despite his intimidating height, his game is unusually clean for a defender, evident by his relatively few bookings. He is known for having a penchant for scoring headers from set-pieces and corners due to his height advantage.

Club career

Hannover 96

Mertesacker, a native of Hanover, started out at local club Hannover 96 where he played under his father Stefan, one of the youth coaches,^[3] and made his league debut in November 2003 against Cologne. He had an unlucky start for his home club, breaking his nose and conceding an own goal soon after, but he established himself as one of the most promising young defenders in the Bundesliga. The slender Mertesacker was soon dubbed "the Defence Pole" (die Abwehrlatte) by German tabloids and gained a reputation for his good disciplinary record and went 31 Bundesliga games without being booked. He has only been booked twice during his entire career at Hannover. On 13 May 2006, he played his last game for Hannover 96 and fittingly scored the opening goal in a 2–2 draw against Bayer Leverkusen.
During his time at Hannover 96, he was good friends with the late Robert Enke, and along with Michael Ballack, presented the laurel during the memorial in honour of Enke's death. He later started a temporary account through his foundation (Per Mertesacker Stiftung) to collect donations for Enke's widow.^[4]

Werder Bremen

In August 2006 Mertesacker moved to Werder Bremen in a €5 million transfer deal after a highly impressive performance in the 2006 World Cup, in which Germany finished 3rd.^[5] Despite missing the first month and a half through an injury sustained at the World Cup, he quickly made the centre back position his own upon his return to the starting eleven. In November, he scored his debut Champions League goal in a 1–0 win over Chelsea to end the Premier League winners' unbeaten streak in the season's competition. Upon his first return to the AWD-Arena for the first game of the second half of the season, he refused to celebrate after scoring against his boyhood club.^[6]
The 2007–08 season was a mixed bag for Mertesacker. He started in nearly all of Bremen's league and European fixtures and received his first red card in his professional career in a 6–3 loss against VfB Stuttgart.^[7] Bremen finished runners-up in the league despite winning only two games fewer than champions Bayern Munich but they managed to seal a place in next season's Champions League. At the end of the season, he signed a 2-year extension to his original contract.^[8]
After returning from the Euro 2008, Mertesacker again missed the beginning of the new season with a knee injury and through illness. In September, he returned to the starting line-up. He scored the opening goal in the German Cup semifinal away at northern rivals Hamburg to break the deadlock after a goalless first half but the home side equalised, forcing the match into extra time and Bremen eventually triumphed 4–2 on penalties. He was ever present for the rest of the season until injury forced him off in the UEFA Cup semifinal second leg against Bundesliga rivals Hamburg.^[9] It was later revealed that he had torn ligaments in his right ankle and required surgery. He was ruled out for the rest of the season, as well as the UEFA Cup final loss against Shakhtar Donetsk and German Cup final which they won. He scored four goals in all competitions, including a crucial equalizer against VfL Wolfsburg.
Mertesacker began the 2009–10 season well with a 5–0 win over FC Union Berlin in the DFB-Pokal, the first game of the season. In October, he scored his first goal of the season in a 2–0 win against Hoffenheim and a last-minute equaliser in the clash against table-toppers Bayer Leverkusen in February.

International career

In September 2004, Jürgen Klinsmann, then-manager of Germany, called Mertesacker up to the 9 October 2004 game against Iran. He made his debut less than two weeks after his twentieth birthday when he came on as a second-half substitute for Christian Wörns. With his quiet but effective game, he established himself as Germany's first choice centre-back,^[10] pairing up with Robert Huth, Christoph Metzelder, and later, Heiko Westermann. At the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup hosted at home, he played the full 90 minutes in all five games and scored a goal in the group stages as Germany won third place.^[11]
At the World Cup 2006 on home soil, Mertesacker paired with Metzelder in central defence. After Germany won the quarter-final penalty shoot-out against Argentina, Mertesacker was attacked by Argentine Leandro Cufré, an unused substitute. He suffered minor injuries to his thigh and a kick to the groin. After Germany's loss to Italy in the semifinals, Mertesacker had surgery on one of his legs and left testicle (not related to the attack above, but an injury he had been dealing with during previous matches) and missed the third place play-off. Nevertheless, his good showing did earn him a transfer to Bundesliga giants Werder Bremen after the tournament. He was first choice when fit during Euro 2008 and was ever present in the final tournament. Due to injury problems at the beginning of the 2009–10 season, he missed several 2010 World Cup qualifiers but has retained his place as first choice since then