Born in
Fulda,
Hesse, Kehl joined
Hannover 96's youth system in 1996 at the age of 15, going on to appear in two
2. Bundesliga seasons with the first team. In the 2000 summer he signed for
SC Freiburg in the
Bundesliga, making his debut in the competition on 12 August by playing the full 90 minutes in a 4–0 home win against
VfB Stuttgart, and scoring his first goal on 12 December of that year to help to a 2–1 away success over
VfL Wolfsburg. Under manager
Volker Finke, Kehl featured mostly as a
sweeper, helping the
Black Forest club qualify to the
2001–02 UEFA Cup in
his first season, before the club suffered relegation in his
second season. He was no longer part of the squad, however, as he had left in the 2002 January
transfer window to
Borussia Dortmund, who went on to win the championship with 15 games and one goal from the player. Previously, in summer 2001, he controversially agreed basic terms with
FC Bayern Munich, and even accepted an advanced payment of 1.5 million
Deutsche Mark, which was returned in November as Bayern threatened to take legal action. in 2007 During his tenure with Dortmund, Kehl was more often than not a starter. He contributed with 12 matches in the
2002–03 UEFA Champions League to help his team reach the second group phase, and amassed 61 league appearances from 2004 to 2006 in back-to-back seventh-place finishes. On the first day of the
2006–07 campaign, Kehl injured his left knee in a challenge with Bayern's
Hasan Salihamidžić, sidelining him for several months and only recovering fully at the start of
2008–09, when he was made
captain by new coach
Jürgen Klopp. He eventually relapsed on his condition, also losing his importance in the starting XI after the emergence of
Sven Bender and
Nuri Şahin. On 27 July 2013, Kehl played the second half of the
DFL-Supercup against Bayern Munich,
replacing Bender in an eventual
4–2 win. In September, he was put out of action for another lengthy period after injuring his ankle in training. ing Dortmund in 2013 Kehl began hinting at retirement in March 2014, shortly after having agreed to a one-year extension to his contract. The 35-year-old confirmed it at the end of the
2014–15 season, after having taken part in 21 games to help Dortmund come from behind in the table and qualify to the
2015–16 UEFA Europa League. ==International career==