With his appearance against SC Freiburg, 40-year-old Frankfurt player Makoto Hasebe joins the ten oldest players in the Bundesliga. Some careers bring with them extraordinary stories – be it an end to a career that wasn’t, a return to a club three times or a new career as a football player.
16 years ago, VfL Wolfsburg introduced a new signing. A midfielder, also an international player for Japan. Makoto Hasebe stayed in Wolfsburg for a total of five years, but he is still playing in the Bundesliga at the age of 40. He is now the ninth oldest player in Bundesliga history.
Hasebe has fixed rituals; he regularly bathes in water temperatures of 42 degrees to relax his muscles. He sleeps eight hours and reads a lot; for him, books are “fitness training for the heart.” He wrote a book about his life’s wisdom and it became a bestseller in Japan.
Hasebe is not the only footballer to last this long. And not the only one with an unusual story either.
Top 10 oldest players in the Bundesliga Name Age at last game Last club Klaus Fichtel 43 years, 184 days FC Schalke 04 Ulrich Stein 42 years, 170 days Arminia Bielefeld Toni Schumacher 42 years, 73 days Borussia Dortmund Claudio Pizarro 41 years, 268 days Werder Bremen Mirko Votava 40 years, 225 days Werder Bremen Bernd Dreher 40 years, 198 days FC Bayern Munich Jens Lehmann 40 years, 179 days VfB Stuttgart Manfred Burgsmüller 40 years, 141 days Werder Bremen Makoto Hasebe 40 years, 30 days Eintracht Frankfurt Claus Reitmaier 40 years, 10 days Borussia Mönchengladbach
Klaus Fichtel (79): Comeback instead of ending his career
At 43 years old and 184 years old, no one was as old as him when he last played in the Bundesliga. In 1965 Fichtel played as a professional for Schalke for the first time. He played for the Royal Blues for 15 years, then Schalke wanted to send him into football retirement. However, Fichtel had a different plan: He moved to Werder Bremen and played all 42 games in his first season in 1980/81 for the then second division club, which was ultimately promoted as first place.
At the age of 39, Fichtel returned to Schalke. His role: assistant coach. But things turned out differently. Due to the loss of libero Bernard Dietz, Fichtel was back on the pitch in the same season. Two years later, Franz Beckenbauer and Uwe Seeler came to Fichtel’s official farewell game at the Parkstadion.
What they didn’t know: It’s just a temporary farewell. After 18 months, Schalke needed help in the relegation battle – and Fichtel was there. He played his final game in May 1988. After that, he says, his wife advised him against a third comeback.
Manfred Burgsmüller: From soccer to football
He is in fifth place among Bundesliga goalscorers; Burgsmüller scored the most goals for Borussia Dortmund. Only Adi Preißler, Marco Reus and Michael Zorc scored more goals there. After stints in Essen, Dortmund and Bremen, he signed a contract with second division club Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in 1984 at the age of 34. One might think this is a step towards the end of his career.
But Burgsmüller convinced and moved back to the first division to Werder Bremen. There he won his first title at the age of 38 with the DFB Cup. At the age of 40, Burgsmüller played his last game as a professional footballer. But his sports career wasn’t over there: six years later, Burgsmüller became an American football player.
As a kicker, he played for the Düsseldorf team Rhein Fire for a total of six years and only ended his sporting career at the age of 52. However, his retirement as an athlete was shorter than his career: Burgsmüller died in May 2019 at the age of 69.
Claus Reitmaier (59): From the Bundesliga to the best goalkeeper in Norway
Reitmaier didn’t play for any club more often than for VfL Wolfsburg. After Lower Saxony retired him in 2003, the then 39-year-old moved to Borussia Mönchengladbach as the oldest player of the season. He wanted to end his career there. But the self-confessed Gladbach fan only made six appearances; in his last game in March 2004, the then 40-year-old had to make five appearances: Gladbach lost 5-2 to Bayern.
But Reitmaier couldn’t completely separate himself from being a goalkeeper, even after his end in the Bundesliga. And so in the 2005/2006 season he stood between the posts of the Norwegian first division club Lillestrøm SK – and was voted the best goalkeeper in the Norwegian league with just under 42.
Claudio Pizarro (45): Werder’s exceptional striker
Claudio Pizarro ends his Bundesliga career where he started it a good 20 years ago: in Bremen. In between there are 281 goals and positions at Bayern Munich, FC Chelsea and 1.FC Cologne.
The Peruvian came to Bremen from Lima when he was 20. “Pizza” returned to the Weser a total of three times and won the cup with Werder in 2009. Pizarro won the treble with Bayern in 2013 before returning for the 2015/16 season. The fact that Werder didn’t extend the contract with the now 38-year-old two years later didn’t stop Pizarro.
He moved to Cologne and, after his many successes, experienced relegation for the first time. But for Pizarro there is no reason to think about ending his career. And so he went to Bremen one last time before he played his last game there in 2020 at the age of 41 years and 268 days and said goodbye as the oldest goalscorer in the Bundesliga.