An accomplished goalkeeper with several years of Bundesliga and European club experience behind him, Tim Wiese has emerged as the likeliest understudy to Manuel Neuer in Germany's UEFA EURO 2012 squad. He was an unused member of Joachim Löw's 23-man party at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

• Born near Cologne, he spent his youth affiliated to Bayer 04 Leverkusen before embarking on his senior career in Germany's third tier with SC Fortuna Köln.

• Joined 1. FC Kaiserslautern midway through the 2001/02 season and became the club's first choice keeper, making 65 Bundesliga appearances, plus a couple in the UEFA Cup, before leaving for SV Werder Bremen − the team his Kaiserslautern side defeated 3-0 in the 2003 German Cup semi-final before losing 3-1 in the showpiece to FC Bayern München.

• Badly injured shortly after his arrival in Bremen but eventually replaced veteran Andreas Reinke − despite a costly error in a UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie against Juventus in 2006 that enabled the Italian club to score late on and reach the quarter-finals on away goals.

• Established himself firmly as the Bremen No1 over the next five seasons, four of which involved further participation in the UEFA Champions League; helped the club reach the 2009 UEFA Cup final − which was lost to FC Shakhtar Donetsk in Istanbul − and claim victory in the German Cup showpiece (1-0 against Leverkusen) to collect his first major honour.

• A German Under-21 international, he won his first senior cap on 19 November 2008 in a Berlin friendly against England; went to the 2010 World Cup as third-choice keeper and had still to play in a competitive international at the close of UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying.

UEFA honours
UEFA Cup: runner-up 2009