Uwe Rösler

In an FA cup match against Notts County he scored four goals, becoming the first Manchester City player to score four in an FA Cup tie since Johnny Hart in 1953.

His performances that season meant he was the club's leading goalscorer, and he won the club's Player of the Year award.

Uwe Rösler (born 15 November 1968) is a German football manager and former professional footballer.

Born in Altenburg, Rösler started his career in the former GDR, joining Lokomotive Leipzig in 1987, where he spent one season, before moving on to BSG Chemie Leipzig in 1988.

Following this he transferred to 1. FC Magdeburg in 1989, where he spent a year before signing for Dynamo Dresden in the winter 1990–91.

After two years with Dresden, he also spent two years with 1. FC Nürnberg, where he failed to score once in 28 games, resulting in him being loaned back to Dresden for the second year.

Having grown up in the East, where players were nominally regarded as amateurs, Rösler found it difficult to adapt when he moved to the West after reunification: "I suddenly saw more individualistic thinking, cliques, a powerful press and personal politics around team selection. The Wall was still there in some people's heads and in many ways I was naive."

As a player he was a centre forward, notably playing in the Premier League for Manchester City, where he was the leading goalscorer for three consecutive seasons from 1994–95 to 1996–97, and in the Bundesliga for 1. FC Nürnberg and 1. FC Kaiserslautern, playing in the UEFA Champions League with the latter.

He also played Premier League football for Southampton, in the Football League for West Bromwich Albion and in Norway for Lillestrøm.

Back in his native Germany, he represented 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig, BSG Chemie Leipzig, 1. FC Magdeburg, Dynamo Dresden, Tennis Borussia Berlin and SpVgg Unterhaching.

Rösler is a former East Germany international, whom he represented in the under-21 team and five times as a senior.

In March 1994, Rösler joined Manchester City on trial.

Given an opportunity in a reserve match against Burnley, he scored two goals, which resulted in a three-month loan.

He made his first team debut the following Saturday, against Queens Park Rangers.

A return of five goals in twelve games saw the move made permanent in the close season, reports of the transfer fee varying between £375,000 and £500,000.

After an ignominious start to the 1994–95 campaign, when he was sent off in a 3–0 opening day defeat at Arsenal, Rösler formed a productive partnership with Paul Walsh, and scored 22 league and cup goals despite missing several games through injury.

At the start of the 1995–96 season, Alan Ball became manager and immediately changed the nature of the side.

Despite City's obvious strengths down the flanks, the team was adapted to play through the middle of the park.

With no supply line from the wings (City's other winger Nicky Summerbee often playing at right-back), and with the loss through injury of Beagrie and the shocking sale of Walsh, Rösler struggled in this season.

Many felt that he and fellow striker Niall Quinn were too similar to play in a system that didn't feed strikers effectively and Rösler clearly became unhappy.

Much publicised disagreements with the manager culminated in Rösler being dropped from the side, only to be brought on as a sub in the Manchester derby and immediately score a phenomenal goal.

Rösler's goal celebrations saw him running to the bench, shouting at Ball and pointing to his name and squad number on the back of his shirt.

City were relegated to Division One at the end of the campaign, but Rösler opted to stay with the Blues.

Despite another difficult campaign, Rösler again finished top scorer and clearly benefited from the return to a 4–4–1–1 formation.

After another spell out with injury, Rösler would eventually leave the Blues in May 1998 on a free transfer following relegation to Division Two.

In his four years at City he played 176 games, scoring 64 goals.

In the summer of 1998, Rösler returned to Germany joining Kaiserslautern, then reigning German champions, for one season.

His most remarkable game there was on 9 December 1998 when he came on as a substitute against HJK and scored a second half hat-trick as Kaiserslautern won 5–2, helping them to win their group in the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League, before going out in the quarter-finals to Bayern Munich.

He then moved on to Tennis Borussia Berlin for the 1999–2000 season.

When Tennis Borussia went bankrupt in the summer of 2000, Glenn Hoddle snapped Rösler up on a free transfer, but he was unable to become a regular in Saints' first team as James Beattie started to find his form (scoring 10 goals in 10 games in November and December).

Rösler also suffered a groin injury which required surgery, keeping him out for several weeks.

Although he was a whole-hearted and committed player, he only managed to score once for the Saints, in a League Cup game at Mansfield Town.

Rösler scored the last goal at The Dell on 26 May 2001 in a friendly against Brighton & Hove Albion – who were selected as Southampton's opponents as they had been the stadium's first visitors when it opened in 1898 – as Saints won 1–0.

However, the distinction of the last competitive goal at The Dell went to Rösler's teammate Matt Le Tissier, who had scored a late winner in the 3–2 Premier League win over Arsenal seven days earlier.

In the following season, he only made a handful of appearances before being loaned out to West Bromwich Albion on 30 October 2001, as cover for the injured Scott Dobie.

He made his debut away at Crystal Palace on 31 October 2001, and his only goal for Albion came in a 1–0 home win over Nottingham Forest four days later.

Rösler played just five games for West Bromwich Albion, as he joined German side SpVgg Unterhaching on a free transfer in January 2002, who went on to win promotion as Division One runners-up at the end of the 2001–02 season.

In 2004, he began his managerial career with Lillestrøm in Norway, and later led Viking and Molde FK in Tippeligaen.

He also managed Brentford, Wigan Athletic, Leeds United and Fleetwood Town in the English Football League, as well as Malmö FF in Allsvenskan, Fortuna Düsseldorf in the Bundesliga, and most recently AGF in the Danish Superliga.

He was admitted to City's "Hall of Fame" in December 2009.