Who is Jorg Albertz?
Jorg Albertz is a former professional footballer from Germany who played as a midfielder. Between 1996 and 1998, Jorg played three international matches for his country’s national team.
As both a youngster and apprentice, he played for Borussia Monchengladbach and PSV Monchengladbach.
His first professional deal was signed back in 1990 for Fortuna Dusseldorf, where Albertz earned himself the nickname “The Hammer” for his very powerful long-range shots.
When the side from the Rhineland were relegated to the second division of the Bundesliga, Albertz switched to Hamburg where he soon became the cult hero. Two campaigns later he became the club captain.
In 1996, Jorg signed for Rangers for £4 million, and Albertz helped them to their ninth Scottish league championship trophy in a row and netted a famous free-kick versus rivals Celtic in January 1997.
He became a huge favourite with the Rangers supporters, but after the departure of head coach Walter Smith in June 1998, he was regularly left out of the starting XI by the incoming Dick Advocaat. In spite of this, he also got league championship medals in 1999 and 2000.
He returned to Hamburg at the beginning of this century. In spite of the hype of his return, Jorg was unable to live up to the expectations, and before the beginning of campaign 2002–03, he transferred to Chinese outfit Shanghai Shenhua. He initially gained success with the club when he won the 2003 league title.
Unfortunately that year, the Chinese Football Association would revoke the league trophy after it was discovered the Shenhua General chief Lou Shifang had bribed officials to give favourable decisions to the club in games that season.
Having had a moderately successful stint in China, Albertz transferred back to Germany in 2004, his re-initiation into the German match coming with Greuther Fürth.
On the receiving end of several injuries, he moved to Fortuna Dusseldorf once again, where Albertz retired at the end of the 2006–07 term.
In March 2008, Albertz confirmed he was training at Clyde with a view to a short-term transfer, to help out Clyde manager and ex-Rangers teammate John Brown. Albertz joined Clyde on 14 March 2008.
After helping the Bully Wee stay in the Scottish First Division via the playoffs, he went into retirement once again, after featuring in eight matches for the club, scoring twice.
