Nils Petersen

Carl Zeiss Jena

In February 2005, Carl Zeiss Jena signed Petersen to a youth contract, before promoting him to the First Team in January 2007. Before promotion to the first team, Petersen had already gained experience playing with the reserves playing in the Oberliga. Petersen made his professional debut on 4 February 2007 (20th matchday), in a 1–0 loss in an away match against 1. FC Köln. He entered the match in the 89th minute as a substitute for Mohammed El Berkani. In future matches, he would serve as a "super-sub" coming off the bench to score decisive goals against Alemannia Aachen, Erzgebirge Aue, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, and FC Augsburg. Jena suffered relegation in the spring of 2008 so in the beginning of the 2008-09 season he appeared in the 3. Liga for the Thuringian club.

Energie Cottbus

On 6 January 2009, Petersen switched to Energie Cottbus. In his first season with the club, he made an appearance in the Bundesliga and the relegation playoff. He premiered for Cottbus on the final match-day of the season in a 3–0 home victory over Bayer Leverkusen, on 23 May 2009. Cottbus, finishing 16th in their Bundesliga campaign, would go on to lose in the relegation/promotion playoff against 2nd division 1. FC Nürnberg, resulting in Cottbus' relegation to 2. Bundesliga. During the first half of the 2009–10 season, Petersen rarely saw playing time for Cottbus. After the winter break, his playing time increased as he was able to score nine goals in 14…

Club

International

Petersen was a member of the Germany U19, scoring a goal against Russia during the UEFA U-19 European Championship and the Germany U20, before being called up on 6 August 2009 for the German U21. Petersen was part of Germany Olympic Squad for Rio's Olympic along with Lars and Sven Bender as one of three allowed players over the age of 23. On 4 August 2016, he came on as a substitute in the 84th minute for Davie Selke in a 2–2 draw. Three days later, in the 83rd minute, he was again substituted on for Selke. On 10 August 2016, he started and scored five goals in a 10–0 win against Fiji. On 13 August 2016, against Portugal, he again replaced Selke, in the 78th minute. On 17 August 2016, in the semi-final against Nigeria, Petersen came on for Max Meyer in the 84th minute and scored his sixth goal of the tournament five minutes later. On 20 August 2016, Petersen entered the pitch as a 76th-minute substitute for Selke in the Gold medal match. He was the only player who failed to score in the shootout in the gold medal match, and Germany won the silver medal. On 15 May 2018, he was named in Germany's provisional 2018 FIFA World Cup squad. Petersen was then handed his first cap in a friendly versus Austria on 2 June in preparation for the World Cup, but was left off of Löw's final squad for the tournament. His second and final international cap was won in September 2018 after the World Cup.

Germany

Summer Olympic Games silver medalist: 2016 Individual

Olympic Games top scorer: 2016