List of Bayer 04 Leverkusen players

This is a list of notable footballers who have played for Bayer Leverkusen. Generally, this means players that have played a significant amount of first-class matches for the club. Other players who have played an important role for the club can be included, but the reason why they have been included should be added in the 'Notes' column.

For a list of all Bayer Leverkusen players, major or minor, with a Wikipedia article, see Category:Bayer Leverkusen players, and for the current squad see the main Bayer Leverkusen article.

Players are listed according to the date of their first team debut. Appearances and goals are for first-team competitive league matches only; wartime matches are excluded. Substitute appearances included.

Table

Player	Nationality	Position	Bayer Leverkusen career	Appearances	Goals	Notes
Karl-Heinz Spikofski		Midfielder	1950-1952	27	3
Udo Lattek		Forward	1955-1957	6	2
Heinz Höher		Mifielder/Forward	1957-1963	155	60
Zvonko Bego		Midfielder	1960-1969	17	1
Uwe Klimaschefski		Forward	1960-1963	25	10
Manfred Manglitz		Goalkeeper	1961-1963	26	0
Werner Görts		Forward	1962-1965	41	8
Franz-Josef Wolfframm		Midfielder	1964-1966	0	0
Dieter Fern		Forward	1965-1967	4	0
Leo Wilden		Defender	1966-1969	0	0
Zvonko Bego		Midfielder	1968-1969	17	1
Dieter Ferner		Goalkeeper	1968-1973	4	0
Burkhard Segler		Midfielder	1970-1972	0	0
Walter Posner		Defender	1975-1984	274	5
Theodor Rielander		Midfielder	1975-1978	44	2
Dieter Herzog		Midfielder	1976-1983	193	29
Jürgen Gelsdorf		Defender	1976-1986	296	26
Peter Hermann		Forward	1976-1984	215	32
Thomas Hörster		Defender	1977-1991	404	26
Kurt Eigl		Midfielder	1979-1982	39	2
Dietmar Demuth		Defender	1979-1983	92	14
Arne Larsen Økland		Forward	1980-1983	101	43
Mathias Hönerbach		Defender	1980-1981	0	0
Valentin Herr		Goalkeeper	1980-1982	2	0
Christian Sackewitz		Forward	1981-1982	20	2
Jürgen Röber		Forward	1982–1986	105	18
Helmut Winklhofer		Defender	1982-1985	90	5
Rüdiger Vollborn		Goalkeeper	1982-1999	401	0
Herbert Waas		Forward	1982-1989	209	72
Rudolf Wojtowicz		Defender	1982-1986	76	2
Frank Saborowski		Defender	1982-1984	41	0
Cha Bum-kun		Forward	1983-1989	185	52
Ulrich Bittorf		Midfielder	1983-1984	37	3
Dieter Bast		Defender/Midfelder/Forward	1983-1986	71	2
Thomas Zechel		Midfilder/Defender	1983-1988	70	6
Christian Schreier		Midfielder	1984-1991	203	63
Falko Götz		Forward	1984–1988	115	26
Florian Hinterberger		Midfelder	1984-1990	105	2
Anders Giske		Defender	1984-1985	29	1
Alois Reinhardt		Defender	1984–1991	156	1
Knut Reinhardt		Midfielder	1985–1991	118	5
Minas Hantzidis		Midfielder	1985-1988	24	1
Wolfgang Rolff		Midfielder	1986–1989	99	9
Jean-Pierre de Keyser		Defender	1986-1990	81	1
Dirk Rehbein		Midfielder	1986-1988	2	0
Erich Seckler		Defender	1987–1992	86	2
Tita		Forward	1987–1988	21	10
Ralf Falkenmayer		Midfielder	1987-1989	48	7
Klaus Täuber		Forward	1987-1989	31	8
Marek Leśniak		Forward	1988–1992	119	20
Terje Olsen		Midfielder	1988-1990	1	0
Oliver Pagé		Defender	1988-1991	6	1
Claus-Dieter Wollitz		Midfielder	1988-1989	7	0
Andreas Fischer		Defender	1989–1994	151	13
Jorginho		Defender	1989–1992	87	9
Martin Kree		Defender	1989–1994	156	22
Markus von Ahlen		Midfielder Defender	1989-1993	24	1
Dirk Heinen		Goalkeeper	1990–1999	107	0
Franco Foda		Defender	1990–1994	113	10
Ulf Kirsten		Forward	1990–2003	350	182
Andreas Thom		Forward	1990–1995	161	36
Ioan Lupescu		Midfielder	1990–1996	184	4
Matthias Stammann		Midfielder	1990-1994	41	1
Christian Wörns		Defender	1991–1998	211	13
Markus Happe		Defender	1991–1999	188	8
Heiko Scholz		Defender	1992–1995	75	5
Pavel Hapal		Midfielder	1992–1995	86	13
Josef Nehl		Midfielder	1992–1996	56	5
Paulo Sérgio		Forward	1993–1997	121	47
Bernard Schuiteman		Defender	1993-1995	6	0
Bernd Schuster		Midfielder	1993–1996	59	8
Taifour Diané		Forward	1993-1995	1	0
Hans-Peter Lehnhoff		Midfielder	1994–2000	139	11
Rudi Völler		Forward	1994–1996	62	26
Mike Rietpietsch		Midfielder	1994-1997	22	0
Walter Junghans		Goalkeeper	1994	0	0
Markus Feldhoff		Forward	1995–1998	77	14
Ramon Menezes		Midfielder	1995-1996	15	1
Niko Kovač		Midfielder	1996–1999	77	8
Robert Kovač		Defender	1996–2001	127	1
Manuel Cardoni		Midfielder	1996-1998	1	0
Zé Elias		Midfielder	1996-1997	23	0
Stefan Beinlich		Midfielder	1997–2000	80	24
Emerson		Midfielder	1997–2000	88	11
Paulo Rink		Forward	1997–2001	88	29
Artyom Bezrodny		Midfielder	1997-1998	0	0
Zé Roberto		Midfielder	1998–2002	113	17
Adam Matysek		Goalkeeper	1998–2001	78	0
Bent Skammelsrud		Midfielder	1998	8	0
Mehdi Pashazadeh		Defender	1998-1999	0	0
Thomas Brdarić		Forward	1999–2003	82	14
Oliver Neuville		Forward	1999–2004	165	42
Bernd Schneider		Midfielder	1999-2009	235	35
Frankie Hejduk		Defender/Midfielder	1999-2003	19	1
Vratislav Greško		Defender	1999-2000	15	0
Michael Ballack		Midfielder	1999-2002 2010-2012	35	2
Frank Juric		Goalkeeper	1999-2004	11	0
Pascal Zuberbühler		Goalkeeper	2000-2001	14	0
Marko Babić		Midfielder	2000–2007	144	13
Jurica Vranješ		Midfielder	2000–2003	46	0
Pascal Ojigwe		Defender/Midfider	2000-2003	30	0
Landon Donovan		Midfielder/Forward	2000-2005	7	0
Hans-Jörg Butt		Goalkeeper	2001-2007	191	7
Yıldıray Baştürk		Midfielder	2001–2004	73	8
Lúcio		Defender	2001-2004	92	15
Diego Placente		Defender	2001-2005	123	3
Dimitar Berbatov		Forward	2001-2006	154	69
Joey DiGiamarino		Defender	2001-2002	0	0
Daniel Bierofka		Midfielder	2002–2005	78	12
França		Forward	2002–2005	102	29
Juan		Defender	2002–2007	139	10
Christoph Preuß		Defender/Midfielder	2002-2003	4	0
Radosław Kałużny		Defender	2003–2004	12	0
Sebastian Schoof		Forward	2003	7	2
Teddy Lučić		Defender	2003-2005	11	0
Džemal Berberović		Defender	2003-2005	0	0
Paul Freier		Midfielder	2004–2008	111	17
Jacek Krzynówek		Midfielder	2004–2006	52	9
Andriy Voronin		Forward	2004–2007	92	32
Gonzalo Castro		Midfielder	2005–2015	220	18
Stefan Kießling		Forward	2006–2018	344	131
Pirmin Schwegler		Midfielder	2006–2009	46	0
Assimiou Touré		Defender	2006-2010	2	0
Sergej Barbarez		Forward	2006-2008	61	11
Manuel Friedrich		Defender	2007–2013	147	11
Theofanis Gekas		Forward	2007–2010	50	13
Arturo Vidal		Midfielder	2007–2011	117	15
Michal Kadlec		Defender	2007–2013	128	8
Dmitri Bulykin		Forward	2007-2008	15	2
Patrick Helmes		Forward	2008–2011	57	28
Toni Kroos		Midfielder	2009–2010	43	10
Daniel Schwaab		Defender	2009–2013	96	0
Sami Hyypiä		Defender	2009-2011	53	3
Gábor Király		Goalkeeper	2009	0	0
Angelos Charisteas		Forward	2009	13	1
Sidney Sam		Forward	2010–2014	92	24
Thanos Petsos		Midifielder	2010-2012	1	0
Bernd Leno		Goalkeeper	2011–2018	233	0
David Yelldell		Goalkeeper	2011-2016	1	0
Vedran Ćorluka		Defender	2012	7	0
Dani Carvajal		Defender	2012-2013	32	1
Heung Min Son		Forward	2013–2015	62	21
Kostas Stafylidis		Midfielder/Defender	2013-2015	1	0
Roberto Hilbert		Defender/Midifielder	2013-2017	58	1
Julian Brandt		Midfielder	2014–2019	165	34
Hakan Çalhanoğlu		Midfielder	2014-2017	79	17
Vladlen Yurchenko		Midfielder	2014-2018	13	1
Kyriakos Papadopoulos		Defender	2014-2015 2015-2017	16	0
Ryu Seung-woo		Forward	2014 2014-2017	0	0
Javier Hernández		Forward	2015-2017	54	28
Kai Havertz		Midfielder	2016–2020	118	36
Leon Bailey		Midfielder	2017-2021	119	28

World Cup players

The following players have been selected by their country for the FIFA World Cup finals, while playing for Bayer Leverkusen.

• Cha Bum-kun (1986)
• Jorginho (1990)
• Ioan Lupescu (1994)
• Paulo Sérgio (1994)
• Emerson (1998)
• Jan Heintze (1998)
• Christian Wörns (1998)
• Ulf Kirsten (1994, 1998)
• Lúcio (2002)
• Yıldıray Baştürk (2002)
• Frankie Hejduk (2002)
• Carsten Ramelow (2002)
• Oliver Neuville (2002)
• Michael Ballack (2002)
• Hans-Jörg Butt (2002)
• Diego Placente (2002)
• Boris Živković (2002)
• Jurica Vranješ (2002)
• Jens Nowotny (2006)
• Bernd Schneider (2002, 2006)
• Jacek Krzynówek (2006)
• Fredrik Stenman (2006)
• Juan (2006)
• Marko Babić (2006)
• Assimiou Touré (2006)
• Andriy Voronin (2006)
• Stefan Kießling (2010)
• Toni Kroos (2010)
• Hans Sarpei (2010)
• Arturo Vidal (2010)
• Tranquillo Barnetta (2006, 2010)
• Eren Derdiyok (2010)
• Andrés Guardado (2014)
• Emir Spahić (2014)
• Son Heung-min (2014)
• Tin Jedvaj (2018)
• Julian Brandt (2018)
• Piero Hincapié (2022)
• Jeremie Frimpong (2022)
• Sardar Azmoun (2022)
• Exequiel Palacios (2022)
• Kai Havertz (2022)