Simon Rolfes

Simon Rolfes is a German footballer who has been playing for Bayer 04 since 2005.

He is the youngest son of a school teacher and has three brothers. Rolfes went to Overberg primary school and continued his education in Fürstenberg gymnasium.

Simon’s career took off in 1986, when he started to play for TuS Recke. He spent 13 years there and moved to the youth team of Werder Bremen, where he was chosen the best player of one of the tournaments the team played in. Soon Rolfes was asked to join the U-18 team of the Bremen side club and, eventually, got to the main team. He started with Werder Bremen II, made 100 appearances for the team and scored 18 goals. In 2003 the footballer was sent on loan to SSV Reutlingen, where he did not succeed though. In 2003/2004 Simon returned to Bremen, where the main squad lifted the DFB-Pokal and clinched the title of the Bundesliga champion.

However, Rolfes did not manage to establish himself in the first team and ended his Werder spell with Alemannia Aachen move, which then was performing in 2. Bundesliga. The footballer was a regular there and netted three goals in 28 matches. In 2004/2005 he and his club participated in the UEFA Cup. Alemannia managed to cruise through Lille and AEK, but later lost to AZ.

In 2005/2006 Rolfes transferred to Bayer 04 and showed an encouraging display, which helped him to get to the starting line-up of the team for official matches. From 2006 till 2008, he was the only player of the Leverkusen club who took part in all 34 matches of both seasons. From 2008/2009 Simon became the captain of the club.

Rolfes was capped eight times for the U-18 team (and contributed one goal), five times for the U-20 and one time for the U-21. His senior international début came on 28 March 2007 in the match against Denmark. On 19 June 2008, Simon took part in the Euro 2008 quarter-final game against Portugal, but failed to go to the World Cup due to an injury.