Germanys Helmes sees red in fourth division

Published: 19 Nov 2011 - 12:46:45

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Germanys Helmes sees red in fourth division

Just 15 months after scoring for Germany against Denmark in a friendly, striker Patrick Helmes found himself being sent off while playing fourth division football for VfL Wolfsburg's amateur team.

Having been dropped from Wolfsburg's first team after falling out of favour with coach Felix Magath, the 27-year-old former Germany star was shown a red card on his reserve team debut in a 2-2 draw against St Pauli's second team.

Having joined 2009 German champions Wolfsburg from Leverkusen in January, Helmes made his last Bundesliga appearance at the start of October.

He was relegated to the reserves on Wednesday with Magath insisting: "He can't help us at the moment."

In front of 215 fans on Friday night in a regional league game, Helmes scored in the 39th minute against St Pauli's reserves, but was sent off just before the final whistle for a dangerous foul.

It was a far cry from his last international appearance for Germany when he scored in the 73rd minute of the 2-2 draw against the Danes in August 2010.

Helmes has a contract at Wolfsburg until 2014 and has played 14 games for Wolves since his arrival, scoring three goals.