Sebastian Boenisch

He made his debut for the club, coming on as a substitute for Duško Tošić in the 80th minute, as Werder Bremen won 2–1 against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Sebastian Boenisch (, ; ; born 1 February 1987) is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a full-back.

In 1988, he emigrated with his family and after a time in Dortmund, the family settled in Heiligenhaus in Niederbergisches Land in Bergisches Land in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Boenisch previously had a surname of Pniowski before the family changed it to Boenisch at the recommendation of the German civil service.

Despite being born in Poland, he is not fluent in Polish and speaks German and Silesian.

He attended the Gesamtschule Berger Feld.

Boenisch's parents are athletes, his mother played handball and his father played football.

Boenisch started his football career by joining SSVG 09/12 Heiligenhaus.

He then moved to different clubs like Borussia Velbert and Rot-Weiß Oberhausen before joining Schalke 04 at age sixteen and signing a professional contract with the club in January 2006.

After three years at the club's reserve, Boenisch made his professional debut for Schalke 04 on 11 February 2006, coming on as a substitute in the 86th minute, in a 7–4 home win against Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

A few weeks later, Boenisch was featured in the first team again in a 2–1 win against Espanyol in the UEFA Cup.

For the next two seasons, Boenisch was never considered for the first team, having spent time playing for the reserve and being an un-used substitute in the first team.

Towards the end of the 2006–07 season, he signed a new deal at Schalke, that would have kept him until 2010.

However, two months later after signing a new contract, Boenisch had enough of being left out of the club's starting lineup and announced his intention to leave the club.

On 1 September 2007, he moved to Werder Bremen on an undisclosed fee, believed to be around €3 million and signed a four-year deal that would last until 2011.

Four months after signing for Werder Bremen, he was joined by Schalke teammate Mesut Özil, who suffered the same fate as Boenisch.

Soon after, Boenisch suffered a knee injury during a U21 match when he represented Germany, After a month's layoff, Boenisch made a return from injury, on 16 February 2008, coming on as a substitute in the 84th minute for Aaron Hunt, in a 2–0 win over Nürnberg.

Three weeks after his return, he scored his first goal for the club, in a 6–3 loss against Stuttgart on 8 March 2008.

He returned to the starting line-up throughout March and was criticised by the club's fans for passing the ball to opposition player.

However, it was short-lived when he suffered a hamstring injury that made him missing the rest of the season, although he was an unused substitute in the final game of the season.

Boenisch finished his first season at Werder Bremen, making nine appearances and scoring once.

The 2008–09 season saw a setback when Boenisch suffered an injury ahead of a new season.

He became a regular in the first team and spent the most of the season in the left-back position, competing the position with Petri Pasanen.

Boenisch then made his UEFA Champions League debut, making his first start, in a 0–0 draw against Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta.

In a match against Borussia Dortmund on 18 October 2008, Boenisch provided two of the three goals in a 3–3 draw.

Despite suffering from injuries, Boenisch, who played all nine UEFA Cup league matches, played the whole 120 minutes of the game and was booked for dissent in the 2009 UEFA Cup Final to level the game at 1–1, however his team went on to lose the game 2–1 to Shakhtar Donetsk after extra time.

Nevertheless, the club would win the DFB-Pokal after beating Bayer Leverkusen 1–0; this was Boenisch's first title in his career.

The 2009–10 season saw Boenisch missing the opening game of the season due to a back injury.

Boenisch had previously suffered an ankle ligament in the 2009 European Under-21 Championship campaign After making a return the next league game, he scored his first goal of the season in a qualification round of Europa League, in a 6–3 win over Aktobe.

In December, Boenisch suffered an injury again – after a collision with Carlos Zambrano, resulting him suffering a knee injury that kept him out for months.

At international level, he made 14 appearances for the Polish national team between 2010 and 2013.

Boenisch was born in Gliwice in Upper Silesia.

His great-grandfather was of German descent.

He made his return, three months later, in a 3–2 win over Bochum on 20 March 2010.

As in the previous season, Werder Bremen made it to the final in the DFB-Pokal.

Boenisch started in the final, but Bremen lost 4–0 against Bayern Munich.

Towards the end of the season, Boenisch was in talks on signing a new contract extension with the club.

After appearing four times for Bremen's first team throughout August and early September, Boenisch suffered a knee injury that kept him out for six months.

In March, he made a return from injury, but his injury soon aggravated and he missed the rest of the season.

In April, after long talk of negotiations of a contract extension, Boenisch finally signed a new deal that would keep him until 2012.