Georg Koch (born 3 February 1972) is a German football goalkeeper who plays for Austrian club Rapid Wien. He was born in Bergisch Gladbach.
He started his career playing at amateur club SpVgg Erkenschwick before becoming a professional by moving to Bundesliga side Fortuna Düsseldorf in January 1992. However, he was only understudy to Jörg Schmadtke and did not make any Bundesliga appearances before the club was relegated to the Second Bundesliga
with a 20th-place finish. He continued to play for Fortuna Düsseldorf
in the following five years and became their first-choice goalkeeper by
the time they returned to the first division, making his Bundesliga
debut on 11 August 1995 in the club's first league match of the 1995–96
season, away against Werder Bremen.
He went on to appear for Fortuna Düsseldorf in all of their 34
Bundesliga matches that season and played another 22 league matches for
the club in the following season. In June 1997, shortly after Fortuna
Düsseldorf was relegated to the Second Bundesliga with a 16th-place
finish at the end of the 1996–97 season, he left the club for PSV Eindhoven.
He spent only three months with the Dutch club and returned to Germany in October 1997 by signing with Arminia Bielefeld,
subsequently spending two and half seasons with the club. He collected
22 Bundesliga appearances before the club was relegated to the Second
Bundesliga with an 18th-place finish at the end of the 1997–98 season
and went on to appear in all of their 34 Second Bundesliga matches in
the 1998–99 season as well as in another 16 Bundesliga matches after
the club was promoted back to the first division for the 1999–2000
season. During the winter break of the season, he left Bielefeld for 1. FC Kaiserslautern and became the club's first-choice goalkeeper in March 2000, after spending six matches on the bench as understudy to Uwe Gospodarek.
He went on to make nine Bundesliga appearances throughout the final
eleven matchdays of the season and became the club's first-choice
goalkeeper in the following two seasons, but lost his position to the
young Tim Wiese
in early 2003 and left the club upon the end of the 2002–03 season. He
appeared in a total of 85 Bundesliga matches in three and half seasons
of playing for Kaiserslautern. In August 2003, Koch signed with Energie Cottbus,
which competed in the Second Bundesliga at the time, and subsequently
made 26 appearances for the club in the league before moving to MSV Duisburg in June 2004 and signing a five-year contract with the club, until June 2009.
He made 67 out of possible 68 league appearances in his first two
seasons with the Zebras, missing only one Second Bundesliga match in
the 2004–05 season as he was suspended for it after collecting five yellow cards.
The club was promoted to the Bundesliga for the 2005–06 season, but was
relegated back to the Second Bundesliga with an 18th-place finish. In
the 2006–07 season, he was part of the Duisburg team that managed
renewed promotion to the top flight, making 26 appearances in the
Second Bundesliga.
He untimely cancelled his contract with Duisburg in late June 2007 and went to join Croatian first-division side Dinamo Zagreb on a free transfer in early July, signing a two-year contract. He made his competitive debut for Dinamo Zagreb on 17 July 2007 in their first UEFA Champions League qualifier against Azerbaijani side Khazar Lenkoran on the road, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
Despite the fact that he only spent one season with Dinamo, he
received large amounts of praise from the fans due to his incredible
charisma after only a few months of playing for the club, with many of
them seeing him as the future captain. However, Dinamo decided to
re-sign their former goalkeeper Tomislav Butina for the 2008–09 season and Koch was eventually sold to Rapid Wien in July 2008.
At Rapid, Koch started the season as the first-choice goalkeeper, deputising for the injured Helge Payer. However, in the derby against Austria Wien on 24 August 2008, he was severely injured after a firecracker,
thrown from the stand with the travelling Austria supporters behind his
goal, exploded in his proximity. Koch had to be substituted and it was
later reported that he had suffered hearing trauma and circulatory shock.Koch has not been playing ever since. In late September 2008, he was
quoted saying in an Austrian newspaper that he is still experiencing
problems with his equilibrioception as a result of the incident.
