Christian Nerlinger (born 21 March 1973) is a German former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder.

He signed for FC Bayern Munich at the age of 13, completing his formation at the Bavarian side.

In the following campaign, Nerlinger's impact, in a midfield which also comprised Jorginho, Lothar Matthäus, Mehmet Scholl and Christian Ziege, was immediate, and he helped the eventual champions by finishing as the second top scorer in the squad with nine goals – a career-best in the German top-flight[2] – only behind Scholl and Adolfo Valencia's 11; he made his competition debut on 7 August 1993, in a 3–1 home win against SC Freiburg.

After another four solid seasons, Nerlinger moved to hometown club Borussia Dortmund, where he began suffering with injuries; this situation would be worsened in the following years, as he could hardly get a game at any of his following two clubs, Scotland's Rangers[3][4] and 1.

FC Kaiserslautern (he reunited with former Bayern teammate Carsten Jancker in the latter), forcing to his retirement from the game in December 2005.