Per Mertesacker

Per Mertesacker (; born 29 September 1984 in Hannover) is a German footballer who plays as a defender for Werder Bremen and the Germany national football team. Despite his intimidating height, his game is unusually clean for a defender, evident by his relatively few bookings. He is known for having a penchant for scoring headers from set-pieces and corners due to his height advantage.

Club career

Hannover 96

Mertesacker, a native of Hanover, started out at local club Hannover 96 where he played under his father Stefan, one of the youth coaches, and made his league debut in November 2003 against Cologne. He had an unlucky start for his home club, breaking his nose and conceding an own goal soon after, but he established himself as one of the most promising young defenders in the Bundesliga. The slender Mertesacker was soon dubbed "the Defence Pole" (die Abwehrlatte) by German tabloids and gained a reputation for his good disciplinary record and went 31 Bundesliga games without being booked. He has only been booked twice during his entire career at Hannover. On 13 May 2006, he played his last game for Hannover 96 and fittingly scored the opening goal in a 2–2 draw against Bayer Leverkusen.

During his time at Hannover 96, he was good friends with the late Robert Enke, and along with Michael Ballack, presented the laurel during the memorial in honour of Enke's death. He later started a temporary account through his...
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