Julian Borner

Julian Borner (born 21 January 1991) is a German professional footballer who plays as a defender for Hannover 96.

After playing youth football for SC Weimar, Vimaria Weimar and Rot-Weis Erfurt, he made his debut in professional football for Energie Cottbus in the 2. Bundesliga in August 2009, but did not make his next appearance for the club for over two years. He suffered relegation to the 3. Liga with Cottbus in 2014 and signed for fellow 3. Liga club Arminia Bielefeld in June 2014. He was promoted to the 2. Bundesliga in his first season with the club an appointed club captain in summer 2017. He transferred to English Championship club Sheffield Wednesday in 2019 and was relegated to League One in 2021.

Club Career

Early career

Born in Weimar, Borner played youth football for SC Weimar (1996–1998), Vimaria Weimar (1998–2001) and Rot-Weis Erfurt (2001–2009). In August 2009, he signed for 2. Bundesliga club Energie Cottbus on a three-year deal. He made his debut for the club and only appearance of the 2009–10 season as a substitute in a 3–1 home defeat to Greuther Furth on 23 August 2009. He failed to make a first team during the 2010–11 season, but did appear twice for the reserve team in the Regionalliga Nord. Having suffered from multiple injury problems during his first two seasons at the club, he made his second first-team appearance as a starter in a 0–0 draw with FC Ingolstadt 04 on 27 November 2011, before being substituted in the 67th-minute. During the 2011–12 season, he made 4 first-team appearances during the and 11 reserve team appearances, scoring twice for the reserve team. In March 2012, Borner extended his contract with the club by a further two years.

Borner scored his first goal in the 2. Bundesliga on 24 November 2012 with the club's second goal of a 3–1 win over Eintracht Braunschweig. He received the first red card of his career on 24 February 2013 for a challenge on Ramon Machado, resulting in a three-match ban. On 29 March 2016, his contr