Stefan Reinartz

Stefan began to play football in Heiligenhauser SV. In 1998 he moved to Bergisch Gladbach 09 and spent a year there before joining Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

In 2007 he started to perform for the youth team of the club and clinched the title of the Under 19 Fußball-Bundesliga champion with it. In the second half of the season Reinartz made several appearances for the main team, but he still was the reserve team player. However, soon the footballer was offered to sign a four-year contract with the club and he accepted the offer, getting the place in the Bundesliga squad in 2008/2009.

On 9 February 2009, Stefan made his professional début in the match against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, though on a one-year loan in 1. FC Nuremberg. He took part only in 16 matches for the temporary team and returned to Bayer to spend the end of the season with the full squad, playing with it in Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal games.

In 2010 Stefan’s active display in the Leverkusen side club was interrupted by an injury. However, on 6 September 2010, the back recovered and came back on the pitch to make his début in Euro Cups, helping Bayer to hammer Rosenborg 4-0 in the Europa League match by scoring his first goal for ‘The Lions’. After that Reinartz made another four sub appearances in the Europa League. In 2010/2011 the German footballer took part in 30 games out of 31 as a regular of the main team and assisted the Leverkusen side in becoming the runners-up of Bundesliga.

Stefan was actively called up to different youth teams of ‘Die Mannschaft’ and even managed to play for the senior team, when on 13 May 2010 he came on as a substitute for Sami Khedira in the 72nd minute of the match against Malta.