Georg Koch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Georg Koch (born February 3, 1972 in Bergisch Gladbach) is a German football goalkeeper.
He started his career playing at amateur club SpVgg Erkenschwick before becoming a professional by moving to Bundesliga side Fortuna Düsseldorf in January 1992. However, he was only understudy to Jörg Schmadtke and did not make any Bundesliga appearances before the club was relegated to the Second Bundesliga with a 20th-place finish. He continued to play for Fortuna Düsseldorf in the following five years and became their first-choice goalkeeper by the time they returned to the first division, making his Bundesliga debut on August 11, 1995 in the club's first league match of the 1995-96 season, away against Werder Bremen. He went on to appear for Fortuna Düsseldorf in all of their 34 Bundesliga matches that season and played another 22 league matches for the club in the following season. In June 1997, shortly after Fortuna Düsseldorf was relegated to the Second Bundesliga with a 16th-place finish at the end of the 1996-97 season, he left the club for PSV Eindhoven.
He spent only three months with the Dutch club and returned to Germany in October 1997 by signing with Arminia Bielefeld, subsequently spending two and half seasons with the club. He collected 22 Bundesliga appearances before the club was relegated to the Second Bundesliga with an 18th-place finish at the end of the 1997-98 season and went on to appear in all of their 34 Second Bundesliga matches in the 1998-99 season as well as in another 16 Bundesliga matches after the club was promoted back to the first division for the 1999-2000 season. During the winter break of the season, he left Bielefeld for 1. FC Kaiserslautern and became the club's first-choice goalkeeper in March 2000, after spending six matches on the bench as understudy to Uwe Gospodarek. He went on to make nine Bundesliga appearances throughout the final eleven matchdays of the season and became the club's first-choice goalkeeper in the following two seasons, but lost his position to the young Tim Wiese in early 2003 and left the club upon the end of the 2002-03 season. He appeared in a total of 85 Bundesliga matches in three and half seasons of playing for Kaiserslautern. In August 2003, Koch signed with Energie Cottbus, which competed in the Second Bundesliga at the time, and subsequently made 26 appearances for the club in the league before moving to MSV Duisburg in June 2004 and signing a five-year contract with the club, until June 2009.
He made 67 out of possible 68 league appearances in his first two seasons with the Zebras, missing only one Second Bundesliga match in the 2004-05 season as he was suspended for it after collecting five yellow cards. The club was promoted to the Bundesliga for the 2005-06 season, but was relegated back to the Second Bundesliga with an 18th-place finish.
