Raphael Schäfer

Raphael Schäfer (born January 30 1979, Kędzierzyn-Koźle (Cosel), Silesia, Poland) is a Germany association football Goalkeeper (association football) who plays for 1. FC Nuremberg.

Club career

Early career

Schäfer began his footballing career at SC Drispenstedt in a suburb of Hildesheim. At the tender age of 12 he was scouted by Hannover 96 and joined the ranks of their youth teams. He became part of the first-team squad with 17 but never made it into the starting line-up.

Thus, he decided to join Fußball-Regionalliga side VfB Lübeck before the 1998–99 season. At Lübeck he quickly became the first-choice goalkeeper but his team failed to qualify for the 2. Fußball-Bundesliga in three consecutive seasons.

Nuremberg

Schäfer transferred to 1. FC Nuremberg in July 2001. The club had just been promoted to the Fußball-Bundesliga and he became the second choice goalkeeper behind former German Under-21-international Darius Kampa. When Kampa had a series of weak showings for the team, coach Klaus Augenthaler gave Schäfer the chance to shine in his first Bundesliga game against Borussia Mönchengladbach in March 2002. Despite playing a good game, Schäfer still remains as second choice as Augenthaler still considered Kampa his first choice keeper. When the club was promotion and relegation the following year, Schäfer had played three games for the Franconian side.

At the start of the 2003–04 season, Nuremberg were plagued by financial trouble and looking to cash in on several players including Kampa. Manager Wolfgang Wolf appointed Schäfer as the first choice goalkeeper as he expected Kampa to leave the club before August 2003. However, Kampa was not sold but Schäfer remained the number one goalkeeper. He stayed in this position throughout the entire season despite substantial fan backing for his rival, Kampa.

Even after Kampa was sold to Mönchengladbach before the 2004–05 season, which saw Nuremberg back in the top flight, Schäfer still had to fight off skepticism in his abilities from parts of the Nuremberg supporters. He answered his critics by showing substantial improvements throughout the following two seasons and was voted skipper of the Nuremberg team before the start of the 2006–07 season. His constant improvement also made Andreas Köpke, goalkeeper's coach of the German national football team, state that Schäfer might be considered when choosing the third-string goalkeeper for Germany's UEFA Euro 2008 campaign.

VfB Stuttgart

In July 2007, he moved to Nuremberg's Bundesliga rival VfB Stuttgart, making his debut for them on 10 August against FC Schalke 04. In summer 2008 he was replaced by Jens Lehmann as Stuttgart's number one keeper.

Return to Nuremberg

In summer 2008 Schäfer returned to 1. FC Nuremberg.

Honours

With Nuremberg:
- DFB-Pokal (2007)