Roman Neustedter is a Russian professional footballer of German descent acting as a defensive midfielder in the Turkish club Fenerbahçe. Previously, the footballer played for teams such as Mainz 05, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Schalke 04. In 2016, R. Neustedter received Russian citizenship, after which he was declared to the Russian national football team. In the period from 2012 to 2013 he played for the German national team.
Soccer player biography
Roman Neustedter was born on February 18, 1988 in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk. His father, Peter Neustedter, was also a football player - he played in the local club Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk. Roman spent all his childhood in Kyrgyzstan with his mother, grandparents, who were of Russian nationality. Roman mostly saw his father only on TV when he watched football matches of the Ukrainian Premier League. Currently, Roman's relatives live in the Russian Federation.
The beginning of a football career
In 1994, Peter Neustedter moved to the German Karlsruhe, and a year later became a player in the Mainz 05 club. Because of this, Roman joined the Mainz Football Academy, where he remained for many years, however, like his father. Here he went through all age teams - played from 1995 to 2006.
In the fall of 2006, Roman Neustedter was included in the understudy of Mainz, where he subsequently played for three seasons. In total, the youth of the "carnival" held 68 meetings and scored 9 goals. In the 2008/09 season, Roman began to be involved in the games of the main team. On October 29, 2008, Roman Neustedter played his first base game against Freiburg in the second German Bundesliga.
The debutant came out in the 84th minute of the match, replacing striker Srjyan Balyak. The match then ended with the victory of the Mainz with a minimum score of 1: 0. During the season, Roman appeared on the field in sixteen matches, but he never scored a goal. Nevertheless, Neusteder demonstrated a high-quality midfield game - he was a universal “defensive player” who was able to destroy the opponent’s attacks and, therefore, create a vector for the development of attacks for his team as well. At the end of the season, many German clubs from the Bundesliga became interested in the midfielder.
Transition to Borussia Mönchengladbach
In anticipation of the 2009/10 season, Roman Neustedter signed a three-year contract with the Mönchengladbach Borussia. It was extremely difficult for the midfielder to break into the main team. Periodically, he was baffled by injuries, and there was also a lot of competition among the midfielders.
Most of the matches of the season, Roman spent for the second team in the league of understudies. The official debut in the national championship of Germany with Roman Neustedter took place on August 16, 2009 against the Hertha Berlin club. Here the Bundesliga debutant appeared on the field in the 85th minute instead of Torben Marx.
At the beginning of 2012, Neustedter received a proposal for a contract from the Gelsenkirchen Schalke 04. Until the end of the season, the player was negotiating with the club, only in the summer was it possible to sign a contract and join the club. In August, Roman hosted a royal blue debut match against Saarbrücken in the national cup. By the way, he entered the field in the starting lineup. In October of the same year, the midfielder made his debut in the Champions League, it was a group meeting with the Greek Olympiacos. A week later, Roman Neustedter scored the first goal for Schalke at the goal of Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga (victory of the “blue” 3-0).
On March 12, 2013, Roman scored the first goal in the Champions League Turkish “Galatasaray”. In the summer of 2016, the player decided not to renew the agreement with Schalke, as he was considering proposals from the Russian side from Moscow CSKA and Kazan Rubin. In general, the midfielder spent 122 official matches for Schalke 04 and became the author of 7 goals.
Where does Roman Neustedter play?
Fenerbahçe from the Turkish League signed a footballer in July 2016. The transfer amount was not disclosed in the media. In August, the player made his debut for the club in a match against Istanbul Bashaksehir.
As part of the “yellow canaries”, Neustedter became the vice champion of the Turkish national championship 2017/18, and the next season he won the bronze medal. As of September 2018, the midfielder spent 49 matches for Fenerbahce and scored 3 goals in his statistics.
International career
In 2008, Roman Neustedter held two matches as part of the German youth team under 20 years old. He took part in the match against Italy and Switzerland. The second even managed to score a goal.
In 2011, the Football Federation of Ukraine expressed its interest in challenging Neustedter to its national team, because the footballer was born in Ukraine. The midfielder said that he would most likely accept the offer, but in order to complete the process he needed to get a Ukrainian passport. Subsequently, the head coach of the Ukrainian national team Oleg Blokhin denied information about the German move.
In November 2012, Neustedter was called up to the German national team for a friendly match with the Netherlands. In the match, Roman made his debut, coming on as a substitute in the second half.
Russian team
In January 2016, the football player met with members of the Russian Football Union to discuss the possibility of his joining the Russian national team. In May 2016, the player received the citizenship of the Russian Federation, and was soon declared for Euro 2016 in the national team.
On June 1, 2016, Neustedter made his debut for Russia in a match against the Czech Republic, replacing him in the 64th minute. The Czech team then won 2-1. In total, the midfielder spent 8 official matches in the Russian team so far without goals (at the time of September 2018).
As you know, Roman was not announced at the 2018 home world championship in Russia. According to many, this choice of Stanislav Cherchesov was based on the ambiguous game of the ex-German at Euro 2016. The team included another naturalized player from Brazil - Mario Fernandez. The coach did not even speak out about Roman Neustedter publicly.