Marcus Urban

Life Urban was born and grew up in the city of Weimar, which was then in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). From 1984, when he was 13, until 1991 he attended a boarding sports school in the nearby city of Erfurt, support by the 2nd division Bundesliga club FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt (Erfurt city football club; Red and White are the club colours). Such schools were widely used in the former Eastern bloc countries. He trained with East German world sports champions and olympic medal winners. He played for the East Germany national youth football teams from 1986 to 1989.

In 1990, he was given an amateur contract to play for Rot-Weiß Erfurt. He played against future players of the Germany national team such as Bernd Schneider, Thomas Linke, Steffen Freund and Frank Rost.

In 1991, he began studies in urban and regional planning at Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar, graduating in 2000 with a master's degree in engineering, specialising in renewable energy.

Urban is on the management team of the Verein für Vielfalt in Sport und Gesellschaft ('Association for Diversity in Sport and Business'). In March 2010 he co-founded the diversity expertise network Fußball für Vielfalt ('Football for Diversity'), originally called Fußball gegen Homophobie. This is a project of the :de:Bundesstiftung Magnus Hirschfeld ('Federal Foundation of Magnus Hirschfield'), an organisation that aims to carry on the work of the pioneering social scientist Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), researching LGBT issues and seeking to prevent social discrimination against the LGBT community in Germany.

As at May 2017, Marcus Urban lives in Berlin with his partner. He plays football in the over 40s team for Hertha BSC.