As a player he was a centre forward, notably playing in the Premier League for Manchester City, where he was the leading goalscorer for three consecutive seasons from 1994–95 to 1996–97, and in the Bundesliga for 1.

He also managed Brentford, Wigan Athletic, Leeds United and Fleetwood Town in the English Football League, as well as Malmö FF in Allsvenskan, Fortuna Düsseldorf in the Bundesliga, and most recently AGF in the Danish Superliga.

Having grown up in the East, where players were nominally regarded as amateurs, Rösler found it difficult to adapt when he moved to the West after reunification: "I suddenly saw more individualistic thinking, cliques, a powerful press and personal politics around team selection.

A return of five goals in twelve games saw the move made permanent in the close season,[5] reports of the transfer fee varying between £375,000 and £500,000.

[6][7] After an ignominious start to the 1994–95 campaign, when he was sent off in a 3–0 opening day defeat at Arsenal,[5] Rösler formed a productive partnership with Paul Walsh, and scored 22 league and cup goals despite missing several games through injury.

With no supply line from the wings (City's other winger Nicky Summerbee often playing at right-back), and with the loss through injury of Beagrie and the shocking sale of Walsh, Rösler struggled in this season.

Much publicised disagreements with the manager culminated in Rösler being dropped from the side, only to be brought on as a sub in the Manchester derby and immediately score a phenomenal goal.

Rösler's goal celebrations saw him running to the bench, shouting at Ball and pointing to his name and squad number on the back of his shirt.

His most remarkable game there was on 9 December 1998 when he came on as a substitute against HJK and scored a second half hat-trick as Kaiserslautern won 5–2, helping them to win their group in the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League,[9] before going out in the quarter-finals to Bayern Munich.

When Tennis Borussia went bankrupt in the summer of 2000, Glenn Hoddle snapped Rösler up on a free transfer, but he was unable to become a regular in Saints' first team as James Beattie started to find his form (scoring 10 goals in 10 games in November and December).

[10] Rösler scored the last goal at The Dell on 26 May 2001 in a friendly against Brighton & Hove Albion – who were selected as Southampton's opponents as they had been the stadium's first visitors when it opened in 1898 – as Saints won 1–0.

[11] However, the distinction of the last competitive goal at The Dell went to Rösler's teammate Matt Le Tissier, who had scored a late winner in the 3–2 Premier League win over Arsenal seven days earlier.

[12] In the following season, he only made a handful of appearances before being loaned out to West Bromwich Albion on 30 October 2001, as cover for the injured Scott Dobie.

[14] Rösler played just five games for West Bromwich Albion, as he joined German side SpVgg Unterhaching on a free transfer in January 2002, who went on to win promotion as Division One runners-up at the end of the 2001–02 season.

During Molde's last eight games of the season, he doubled the team's total number of points, avoided a single defeat, and saved them from relegation.

However promotion was never to come for Rösler's Brentford as they were beaten 2–1 in the play-off final by Yeovil Town at Wembley Stadium, after a poor first-half performance.

Following the drama and disappointment of the 2012–13 season, Rösler embarked upon a heavy overhaul of his squad in order to finally gain promotion to the Championship.

Rösler left the position of Brentford manager on 7 December 2013, having led a revival in the team's fortunes, winning seven of his final eight games.

[35] In March 2014, Rösler returned to Manchester City and led holders Wigan to a shock 2–1 victory over his old club at the Etihad Stadium in the quarter-final of the FA Cup.

After finishing fifth in the Championship, Wigan qualified for the play-offs, but lost in the semi-final to eventual winners Queens Park Rangers after goals from Charlie Austin.

[46] On 8 August, on the opening day of the Football League Championship season, Rösler's first game in charge ended in a 1–1 draw against Burnley after a goal from Mirco Antenucci.

[47] On 19 October, he was sacked after just two wins from 12 games in charge, following a 2–1 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion which left Leeds in 18th place in the Championship.

[60] Rösler is renowned for his teams playing a high, pressing style of football, and is also a fan of squad rotation among players, with 4–3–3 or 3–5–2 his favoured formations.

[62] Born and brought up in East Germany as the communist regime was collapsing, during his time at Lokomotive Leipzig, Rösler was interviewed by the Stasi secret police organisation, who attempted to force him to inform on colleagues seeking to defect to the West in exchange for the Stasi allowing him to continue his fledgling football career unimpeded – only the furious intervention of his manager saved him from their attentions.