Roman Neustädter is a footballer who has been repeatedly called up to the Russian national team. He started his career in Germany, where he spent many seasons with various clubs. Until 2016, he had exclusively German citizenship. Currently he is a player of the Turkish Fenerbahce.
Roman Neustadter was born in Dnepropetrovsk on February 18, 1988. The boy's father was a professional footballer playing at that time in the local Dnipro. Roman spent the first years of his life in Kyrgyzstan, where he lived with his ethnic Russian mother, grandmother and grandfather. For the most part, the child managed to see the father only on TV. From an early age, the boy watched his dad's career, perhaps this was the impetus for Roman's love for football.
In 1994, Roman's father moved to the German club Mainz. The parent took his son with him. It was in the football academy of "Mainz" that the football path of the future player of the Russian national team began. In this specialized school, Roman Neustädter received his first football education and skills.
Roman Neustädter's career in Germany
Roman Neustädter's sporting career in adult football began in 2006, when a promising young player joined Mainz's second squad. After spending two seasons in the reserve squad, in 2008 Roman got the chance to play for the main team, which played in the second most important division of the German Championship. The defender made his debut in the second Bundesliga in October 2008. Oboronets came on as a substitute at the end of the meeting with Freiburg and finished the remaining ten minutes of the meeting. After that, the defenders began to be more and more involved in the main team. In the 2008-2009 season at Mainz, Roman Neustädter played sixteen games.
In 2009, Roman transferred to the team of the elite division of the German championship. The footballer's creativity, his hard work in every game episode and defensive skills attracted the attention of the breeders of Borussia Munich. On August 16, 2009, Roman entered the field for the first time as a player in the first Bundesliga. In the 2008-2009 season, Neustädter was able to play only two matches for the main team of Gladbakh. In order to gain experience and strengthen even more physically, Roman was more often involved in the youth squad of Borussia. Only from the 2010-2011 season, the defender was able to gain a foothold in the main adult team. In his first full year as part of the black-greens, Roman took part in 24 matches of the German Championship. In them, he once scored a goal. The following year, the defender played thirty-three games in the Bundesliga and five more meetings in the German Cup. In these fights, he did not score goals, but reliably performed his main defensive functions.
Since 2012, Roman Neustädter's career began to flourish. He joined Schalke 04 Gilserkinchen, a team that always competes for the highest places in the German Championship. Since his first season, Roman has become a major player for Schalke. In 2012-2013 he played for the club in 31 Bundesliga matches. The attacking performance of the defender has gradually increased. For Schalke in the first year of performances Roman was able to score three goals. In addition, it was with this team that the Oboronets distinguished themselves for the first time on the European arena.
In the next two seasons, Roman Neustädter continued to be one of the leaders of the defense, playing on the field most of the matches of the domestic championship and taking part in European competitions.
In total, Roman played four full seasons for Schalke 04. In the matches of the German Championship, he entered the field 122 times (scored 7 goals). Roman played more than 30 games in Eurocups (Champions League and Europa League).
Roman Neustädter's career in Turkey
In 2016, Roman Neustädter changed not only the club, but also the country, moving as a free agent to the Turkish Fenerbahce. The player's transfer amount was 7 million euros. The defender is still playing for the Turkish team. Thanks to their successes in the domestic arena, Fenerbahce is a frequent participant in European competitions. Therefore, Roman did not remain without international matches in Turkey. In the 2016-2018 season, the Oboronets won bronze medals in the domestic championship with Fener.
Roman Neustädter's career in national teams
The talent of the young footballer was noticed back in Germany. In 2008, Roman began to be recruited into the younger Bundesteam team. He played for the national team for players under twenty, then for the youth team (U-21). In 2008 he scored his only goal for the Germans in the match against the Swiss youth team. Neustädter was called up to the main German national team in only two friendly games.
In 2015, the player decided to obtain Russian citizenship in order to play for the Russian national team. In 2016, the defender renounced his German citizenship and became a full-fledged Russian player.
At EURO 2016, Roman was considered by the head coach of the Russian national team, Leonid Slutsky, as the main player of the national team. At the European Championship in France, Roman, like the entire team, did not achieve outstanding results.
In total, at the moment, Neustädter has played 12 matches for the Russian national team, in which he was able to distinguish himself with one goal scored. Currently, the footballer is taken into account by the coaching staff headed by Stanislav Cherchesov.
The athlete is talented not only in sports terms. He is successful in the field of philology, speaks German, English, Russian, French. Understands Spanish and Turkish.
Roman's personal life is not widely discussed in society. It is known that the footballer is dating the girl Mona Opp, but the couple is in no hurry to enter into an official marriage.
