Ralf Schmidt is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 who currently plays for FC Carl Zeiss Jena

FC Carl Zeiss Jena

FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German association football club based in Jena, Thuringia.-History:The club was founded in May 1903 by workers at the Carl Zeiss AG optics factory as the company-sponsored Fussball-Club der Firma Carl Zeiss. The club underwent name changes in 1911 to Fussball Club Carl Zeiss...

.

Career

He previously played for 1. FC Nuremberg. He was an integral part of the team that won Jena's promotion to the Second Division

2. Fußball-Bundesliga

- Changes in division set-up :* Number of clubs: currently 18. From 1974 to 1981 there were two conferences, each of 20 teams. In 1981–91 it had 20...

 in 2006. Playing in 32 games he caught the eye of former Jena and now Nuremberg coach Hans Meyer

Hans Meyer (football)

Hans Meyer Hans Meyer Hans Meyer (born 3 November 1942 in Briesen (today near Bílina, Czech Republic) is a German former football player and manager.- Coaching career :...

and signed the 21-year-old on a three-year contract. To further his development, Schmidt was sent back to Jena on loan for one more year before joining the FCN squad in the summer of 2007. However, Schmidt was not able to play for the entire second half of the 2006–2007 season being sidelined with a shoulder injury. Before his injury he played in 14 Second Division matches for Jena's first team.