The German top referee Deniz Aytekin ends his career as an impartial after the upcoming Bundesliga season. Two other referees also occur.
As the German Football Association (DFB) announced on Wednesday, the 47-year-old as well as Tobias Welz (48) and Frank Willenborg (46) are in German professional football before his last season. The three referees have already communicated their decisions internally before the start of the new season.
Aytekin: “Very deliberate decision”
“Consciously letting go of something you love is not an easy decision – but a very thoughtful. I would like to stop in a phase in which I am still on the pitch with full conviction, passion and clarity”said Aytekin: “It is important to me to be perceived as a personality that is present and valued – not only when the doubts begin. That is why my goal is to whistle again with full concentration and joy in the coming season and then look back on a long, positive and fulfilled career.”
Awarded three times as “referee of the year”
Aytekin has been part of the Bundesliga permanent inventory since 2008. So far he has led 241 games and thus ranks among the ten most frequently used referees. In 2017 he whistled the DFB Cup final between Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund.
Internationally, Aytekin was used in 21 Champions League games and was awarded three times as “referee of the year” in Germany.
Welz: “The right time”
Welz came to the Bundesliga in 2010 and headed the 2020 cup final. In the pre -season he was the first reference to be a so -called refcam. He already had at the beginning of last season “decided that the season 2025/26 – my 27th season as an impartial in professional football – will be my last on the pitch”said Welz, who so far whistle 143 games in the highest division: “Everything has his time, and for me the right time came after this season to complete this very nice, successful and intensive phase of my life.”
Willenborg is happy about 100 game brand
Willenborg headed his 100th Bundesliga game at the end of last season. He was active in all three professionals and in the DFB Cup. “I was able to decide on the moment when I wanted to end my career. It was always important to me. To have reached the 100 game brand – and that as a late profession – makes me proud. That is a great number”said Willenborg.
Peter Sippel, the sporting director of the Bundesliga referees, paid tribute to the three referees “Outstanding referee personalities”the “A lot of quality” would have brought the referees team: “But the decisions do not make us unprepared, because we are on their further career plans with all the referees.”