It will be his last season
Top referee Deniz Aytekin announces career end
Updated on 08/06/2025 – 1:39 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Deniz Aytekin is one of the most famous referees in Germany. But the coming season will be the last for him on the pipe.
Top referee Deniz Aytekin will end his active career as an impartial after the coming season. This was announced by the German Football Association (DFB) on Wednesday. Togias Welz and Frank Willenborg will also end their careers together with Aytekin.
“I am part of the football family and football gave me a lot,” the 47-year-old Aytekin is quoted in the communication of the DFB. A few months ago, he was honored for his 30 years of work as a referee and that triggered a reflection on him. Many young referees waited for their chance. “I am aware that at some point someone also stepped aside for me, which caused me to rise. This triggered a process in me, at the end of which the decision was that I will end my career after the new season,” said Aytekin.
“Consciously letting go of something you love is not an easy decision – but a very thoughtful,” he says. However, he wanted to stop in a phase in which he was still on the pitch with “full of conviction, passion and clarity”. “It is important to me to be perceived as a personality that is present and valued – not only to go when the doubts begin,” explains Aytekin. “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.”
With 241 missions in the past 17 years, Aytekin is one of the ten referees with the most Bundesliga missions. He was also allowed to lead the DFB Cup final between Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund in 2017. From 2011 to 2022 he was also a FIFA referee and led 21 Champions League games, ten World Cup qualification games and 22 international friendly games during this period. At a big tournament, Aytekin was there at the European Championship as “Additional Assistant Referee”. In Germany he was elected referee of the year three times.
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. At the beginning of last season, he had already “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 whistled 143 games in the highest division: “Everything has his time, and after this season the right time has come to complete this very nice, successful and intensive phase of my life.”
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 about 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 professor-makes me proud. That is a great number,” said Willenborg.