Martin Mannel

Martin Mannel (born 16 March 1988) is a German professional footballer, who plays for and captains Erzgebirge Aue as a goalkeeper. Since his arrival in 2008, Mannel has been spending his career with the Veilchen side.

On 24 May 2015, he gained notoriety after scoring a goal against 1. FC Heidenheim that tied the match on the final score of 2–2.

Club Career

Mannel began his football career at the age of eight at FSV Velten and, later on, SC Oberhavel Velten. At the age of 14, he moved to Energie Cottbus, where he attended the so-called "Elite School of Football", the Lausitzer Sports Academy. Mannel progressed through all the youth departments and, in 2005, became the starting goalkeeper of Cottbus' reserve team when he was just 17 years old.

For the 2008–09 season, he signed a two-year contract with Erzgebirge Aue, being involved in the same operation that also brought his fellow teammates Arne Feick, Jan Hochscheidt and Marc Hensel to Saxony. Thanks to some impressive performances, he quickly replaced Stephan Flauder as the club's main goalkeeper, and he achieved his biggest sporting success early on by winning the promotion to the 2. Bundesliga with Erzgebirge at the end of the 2009–10 season. During the same year, Mannel signed a contract extension with the club until 2012. The first appearance in the second tier for both the goalkeeper and Erzgebirge turned out to beat pretty successful: in fact, while at the winter break the newly promoted team surprisingly topped the league table, at the end of the season they finished in fifth place.

At the beginning of the 2013–14 season, Mannel initially lost his starting place in goal to newly arrived Sascha Kirschstein, but managed to regain it during the second half of the league. In February 2014, he extended his contract with Aue until June 2016.

On 24 May 2015, while his side was involved in a relegation battle, Mannel scored a header from a corner kick in the 88th minute of a match against 1. FC Heidenheim, thus establis