| Intro | German football player and manager |
| Is |
Sports official Athlete Football player Association football player Association football manager |
| From |
Germany Germany |
| Type | Sports |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 13 August 1970, Bautzen |
| Age: | 49 years |
| Star sign | Leo |
Sven Kmetsch (born 13 August 1970, in Bautzen, Saxony) is a retired German footballer, who played as a defensive midfielder and currently is tha assistant manager of Schalke 04 II.
Club career
Including his youth career, Kmetsch spent 14 years at Dynamo Dresden, winning the double in his last season, with one of his midfield teammates being Matthias Sammer. After the German reunification, he would play with the team four consecutive years in the Bundesliga, his competition debut coming on 14 September 1991, in a 3–0 home win against SG Wattenscheid 09.
After Dynamo’s double relegation in 1995, Kmetsch spent three seasons with Hamburger SV, enjoying his best year in 1996–97 – 32 games, four goals – but his team could only rank 13th. He subsequently signed for FC Schalke 04, where he would win two consecutive German Cups, being however mostly a backup player during his seven-year spell.
After no appearances whatsoever from 2003–05 combined, Kmetsch retired, having various spells as coach of Schalke’s second team. After being released in early 2010, he held talks with TSV Germania Windeck and Bayer Leverkusen II to join Heiko Scholz’s coaching staff.
International career
Kmetsch gained two caps for Germany, his debut coming on 10 September 1997, in a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Armenia, in Dortmund: at half-time, with the score at 0–0 (eventually 4–0), he was replaced by another debutee, Lars Ricken.
His second and final appearance was made five months later, in a friendly with Oman (another start, in a 2–0 win).
Honours
- DDR-Oberliga: 1989–90
- FDGB-Pokal: 1989–90
- DFB-Pokal: 2000–01, 2001–02
- DFB-Ligapokal: runner-up 2001, 2002