Alexander Merkel

Early career

Born in Kazakhstan to parents of German ancestry, Merkel moved to Germany in 1998, aged 6. There he started playing football with amateur team JSG Westerwald, before joining VfB Stuttgart at the age of 11.

AC Milan

In 2008, at age 16, Merkel transferred to Italian side AC Milan. During his time in the club's youth system, he was a member of the under-20 side who won the Coppa Italia Primavera in 2010, 25 years after the team's last success in the competition. Merkel received his first call-ups for the senior team during the 2009–10 campaign, but he was never fielded nor named on the bench. At the beginning of the following season, he took part in some pre-season games, putting up good performances. Merkel eventually made his first-team official debut on 8 December 2010, coming off the bench in a UEFA Champions League group stage game against Ajax. He also came off the bench against Tottenham on the 75th minute for Kevin-Prince Boateng on 6 January 2011. He also made his league debut, figuring in the starting line-up for a match against Cagliari. Merkel went on to score his first professional goal on 20 January, as Milan pulled off a 3–0 win over Bari in the Coppa Italia round of 16. In total, he made ten appearances, six of which were in the league, throughout the season.

Genoa

At the beginning of the 2011–12 season, Merkel joined Genoa in co-ownership with Milan, for €5 million, which, in turn, signed Stephan El Shaarawy in a same…

Merkel made his international debut for Germany U-15 in a 4–1 win against Switzerland and has since represented Germany at all levels of youth international football up to under-19. In a December 2010 interview, he stated that he "dreams" of going on to play for the senior team one day. In another December 2010 interview he said that he is interested in representing Russia. Russian Football Union president Sergey Fursenko and Russia's coach Dick Advocaat both commented saying that he can't be called up as he does not actually possess Russian citizenship. Merkel noted that naturalization should not be a problem, considering that an American-born Jon Robert Holden played for the Russia national basketball team. In February 2011, Merkel's adviser Arthur Beck, father of German international Andreas Beck, confirmed the player's renewed wishes to be capped for Germany. In March 2015, Merkel decided to play for the Kazakhstan national team. He made his debut against Iceland in a qualifying match for Euro 2016.

Club

As of match played 27 May 2018

International

As of match played 24 March 2019

Milan

Serie A: 2010–11 Al-Faisaly

King Cup: 2020–21