Manuel Wilhelm

Manuel Wilhelm (born 15 December 1980 in Ludwigsburg)^[1] is a German international rugby union player, playing for the RG Heidelberg in the Rugby-Bundesliga and the German national rugby union team.

Manuel Wilhelm plays rugby since 1986, first for RG Heidelberg, later he spent one season with league rival SC Neuenheim, before he went back to his club of origin RG Heidelberg. After his military service Wilhelm played one season for CAU Valencia in the first Spanish division, before returning to RG Heidelberg. He won two German championships (15s) with the later, in 2006 and 2007, five 7s-championships in 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2009 and the German cup in 2004. He also plays beach rugby for The Romantics B.R.F.C..^[2]

He was first called up for the German national team in 2000 but could not play because of injury and did not make his debut for Germany until 2003, in a game against Sweden.^[3]

He is the founder of Germany's biggest rugby website, TotalRugby.de.^[4]

In 2012, Wilhelm proposed a reform of the German league system which was approved at the Deutsche Rugby Tag, the annual general meeting of the DRV, in mid-July 2012. The new system will see the number of clubs in the Bundesliga increased from ten to 24, the league divided into four regional divisions of six clubs each and the finals series expanded from four to eight teams.^[5][6]

Wilhelm's father is from Ghana while his mother is German.^[3]