Wiedwald: Felix

2017-2018 (Leeds Player Details) (Player Details)

Goalkeeper

Born: Thedinghausen, Germany: 15-03-1990

Debut: Bolton Wanderers (a): 06-08-2017

6'2" 12st 9lb (2017)

Born in Thedinghausen, he joined local club TSV Achim in 1997 and stayed for two years, before moving to the larger Werder Bremen in 1999, where he advanced through the Junior ranks for the next ten years. in July 2005 he signed for the Under-Seventeens and two years later he moved to the Under-Nineteens. On 23rd February 2008 he made his debut for the SV Werder Bremen Under-Nineteens in a 6-0 win at 1 FC Magdeburg and he held his place for the rest of the season, making nine appearences in the A-Junioren Bundesliga Nord/Nordost. In the following season he held his position starting eighteen more games in the A-Junioren Bundesliga Nord/Nordost together with two more in the play-offs and one in the DFB-Junioren-Vereinspoka. He also sat on the bench in one game for the 3.Liga SV Werder Bremen II on 12th May 2009 in a 2-0 win at SC Paderborn 07. He started the 2009-10 season on the bench for the 3.Liga SV Werder Bremen II but soon moved into the team and after playing a full game in a 2-2 draw at FC Carl Zeiss Jena on 26th September 2009, he started fifteen games to go with the thirteen that he spent unused on the bench. He may not have made his first team debut but had been called up for the bench with the first team. In the Bundesliga he had sat unused on 6th December 2009 in a 0-0 draw at FC Koln and finished the season with eight games unused on the bench, together with one in the Eurpa League on 3rd December 2009 in a 4-1 home win over CD Nacional , and also sat there in the final of the DFB-Pokal on 15th May 2010 in a 0-4 defeat by Bayen Munich. On 13th November 2009 he was also selected for the German Under-Twenty team but sat unused on the bench in a 2-2 draw with Austria Under-Twenties at the Dietmar-Hopp-Stadion in Sinsheim. He was once more the regular 3.Liga SV Werder Bremen II in the 2010-11 season starting twenty-four times. Once more he was called up to the SV Werder Bremen Bundesliga team but only acted five times as the unused substitute goalkeeper. He did miss a few chances due to a ligament injury in November 2010 and a fracture thumb in April 2011, but was unused on 2nd November in a 0-2 defeat at home by FC Twente Enschede in the UEFA Champions League and once in the DFB-Pokal on 26th October 2010 at Bayern Munich. He moved to MSV Duisburg of the 2.Bundesliga on 6th July 2011 for a fee in the region of £100,000, as cover for Florian Fromlowitz, but after a dozen games unused on the bench in the 2 Bundesliga and two more in the DFB-Pokal, he got his chance and took it with both hands, starting on 18th November 2011 in a 3-0 home win over Eintracht Braunschweig and he retain possession until the end of the season starting twenty consecutive 2 Bundesliga games.In his second season he was again the regular keeper, except when he frctured his hand in late November and missed five games and also sat on the bench for two games as he recovered. He started in twenty-seven games in the 2. Bundesliga and also started twice in the DFB-Pokal. On 1st July 2013 he moved on a free transfer to Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt, where he became the number two goalkeeper to regular goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. In his first season he had little playing time and in the Bundesliga he sat unused on the bench for thirty-three of the thirty-four fixtures. His only appearance was on 2nd February 2014 in a 0-5 defeat at Bayern Munich when he took over for the last thirteen minutes of the match when Kevin Trapp went off injured. In the Europa League he did play a full game in Group F on 12th December 2013 in a 2-0 home win over APOEL Nicosia, and he also sat unused in the other nine matches in that competition. In the DFB- Pokal he was unused on three occasions and plasyed in just one game for the Eintracht Frankfurt II in the Regionalliga Südwest in a 3-1 home win over TSG 1899 Hoffenheim II on 4th August 2013. After starting the 2014-15 season as Kevin Trapp's understudy, in the fifth Bundesliga game of the season, he was called upon to replace the injured Trapp in the final minute of a 2-2 home draw with 1 FSV Mainz on 23rd September 2014. Trapp was out for the next nine fixtues as Wiedwald took over in goal in a 2-1 away win over Hamburg SV on 28th September 2014. However after the 5-2 home win over SV Werder Bremen on 7th December 2014 was struck down by Mononucleosis and Timo Hildebrand took over in goal with Yannick Zummack as his deputy. Three games later after Weidwald had recovered he was back on the bench with Kevin Trapp back as first choice. This remained the case for the rest of the season as he sat a total of twenty-one games unused in the season. In the DFB-Pokal he was on the bench unused once and he played a full game on 29th October 2014 in a 1-2 home defeat by Borussia Monchengladbach. On 26th May 2015 he moved once more to SV Werder Bremen on a free transfer. He made his debut for his new club on 8th August 2015 in the First Round of the DFB-Pokal as SV Werder Bremen defeated Würzburger Kickers 2-0, after extra-time, at the Flyeralarm Arena as he established himself as the clubs first choice goalkeeper.He made his Bundesliga debut in 15th August 2015 as they went down 0-3 at home to FC Schalke 04. He went on to be ever-present in the Bundesliga with thirty-four starts and also played the full compliment in the DFB-Pokal, with five starts as SV Werder Bremen progressed to the Semi-Finals before being beaten 0-2 by Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. He started the 2016-17 season as first choice and was picked ahead of Jaroslav Drobny for the opening game, as SV Werder Bremen went down 1-2 at Sportfreunde Lotte. He held onto the jersey for the first two Bundesliga fixtures as Bremen were soundly defeated 0-6 at Bayern Munich on 26th August 2016 and the 1-2 at home by FC Augsburg on 11th September 2016. This led to Jaroslav Drobny being given his chance in goal and Wiedwald was on the bench for the next four games. But the results were not going Bremen's way and Wiedwald was re-instated for the next four games, which resulted in one win and three defeats and so Jaroslav Drobny was recalled for the next five games, which saw two wins and three draws. He started on 21st January 2017 at home to Borussia Dortmund, but was sent off for a professional foul after thirty-nine minutes and Wiedwald replaced the forfeited Claudio Pizarro three minutes later. Although they went down 1-2, Wiedwald maintained his place for the next games, at home to Bayern Munich on 28th January 2017, with Jaroslav Drobny suspended and Michael Zetterer his deputy. After Jaroslav Drobny returned from suspension the club backed Wiedwald and he played the remaining games as first choice keeper and had started twenty-four, been a substitute once and unused on the bench in nine of the thirty-four Bundesliga fixtures. Wiewald had seen his contract automatically extended due to a clause which brought that about once he had played twenty games in the first team. So, on 11th May 2017, his contract was secure, but on 27th June 2017 the club signed Jiri Pavlenka and Wiedwald appeared to be second choice. This triggered enquiries from French Ligue 1 FC Nantes and Championship club Leeds United. Wiedwald chose Leeds and on 30th June 2017, Wiedwald signed for Leeds United in a three-year deal contract at a fee thought to be in the region of £400,000. There was a school of thought in Germany that Bremen had long suspected that Wiedwald was the source of their defensive problems. He was surplus to requirements for the Bundesliga club. who had signed Jiri Pavlenka from Slavia Prague whilst extending the contract of current number one goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny to replace the twenty-seven year old Wiedwald, who was not happy with the situation. It was thought that Felix Wiedwald has been utterly terrible with "Die Grunweiss" for the past couple of seasons. Ever since he moved to the Northern giants of Germany, Wiedwald has conceded an enormous number of goals, albeit the terrible Bremen defence also played a part. In the past two seasons with Bremen, Wiedwald had conceded an astonishing one hundred and fourteen goals in just fifty-nine games in the Bundesliga, almost two per game. It was the highest by any Bundesliga keeper in the past two years, with at least 50 games played. On the brighter side of things, it was'nt actually Wiedwald’s fault that he conceded so many goals. In fact, he had been one of Bundesliga’s top five shot stoppers in the past couple of seasons. In the 2015-16 season, he had effected almost an average of three saves per game ratio, the fourth best in the league, and in 2016-17, he also recorded a stunning 2.92 saves per game ratio, the most in the league. There was no doubt Werder Bremen had one of the leakiest defence among Europe’s top five leagues and it’s normal that their goalkeepers tend to concede a lot of goals. He was the first choice until they signed Jaroslav Drobny from fierce rivals Hamburger SV on a free transfer last summer. Drobny’s form had been much better compared to Wiedwald as he had conceded just fifteen goals in ten games, before suffering a training injury, and he had to see out the rest of the season sitting on the bench. However, there was no surprise why Bremen chose to extend the contract of the 37-year-old and no doubt Wiedwald’s futility has played a big role in that. Wiedwald is actually a decent shotstopper, who can be excellent in crucial situations. For example, his important save against Frankfurt in the final day of the 2015-16 season saved Bremen from the brink of relegation. However, at Leeds there were already three goalkeepers, in Rob Green, Marco Silvesteri and Bailey Peacock Farrell and he needed to prove he was the best. Silvesteri soon left for Italy while Bailey Peacock- Farrell’s deal was due to expire the following summer, leaving the road clear for Wiedwald to give a strong challenge to Rob Green as the first choice keeper. Wiewald was given the keeper's jersey for the first game of the season on 6th August 2017, and he made his Leeds United debut in the 3–2 victory against Bolton Wanderers, with Rob Green on the bench. In the following four league matches he kept four successive clean sheets and things seemed to be progressing perfectly. However, Rob Green decided his future lay as an understudy in the EPL at Huddersfield Town and departed on 27th August 2017, to be replaced almost immediately by Andy Lonergan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, while Bailey Peacock-Farrell season long loan to Oldham Athletic fell through and, after signing a new three year contract at Leeds, he went on a months loan to York City, but returned in early November 2017. Meanwhile, the wheels started to fall off as Leeds, after keeping two more clean sheets against Burton Albion and Birmingham City in early September, and finding themselves still undefeated and top of the championship, lost their first game at Millwall and then conceded two at home to Ipswich and three in defeats at Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday. Wiewald was criticised for his poor performance at Hillsborough and made way for Andy Lonergan, who went in goals for the next seven games, with Wiewald on the bench, until he too received similar criticism and Wiewald was recalled for the next seventeen Championship games, before giving way to Bailey Peacock-Farrell for the rest of the season on 7th March 2018 for the home loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wiewald was on the bench for the next three games before giving way to Andy Lonergan for the rest of the season. He had started twenty-eight games in the Championship and sat unused on the bench ten times. He also started twice and sat unused once on the bench in the League Cup. On 19th June 2018, Wiedwald signed for his former Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee. He has still to make his debut, but has sat unused on the bench in the Bundesliga in a 1-3 defeat at Borussia Dortmund on 14th September 2018, as understudy for Kevin Trapp, and has also sat on the bench on 12th August 2018 in a 0-5 home loss to Bayern Munich in the DFL Supercup, as understudy to Frederik Ronnow, and on 18th August 2018 in a 1-2 defeat at SSV Ulm 1846, again as understudy to Frederik Ronnow, in the DFB-Pokal.