Moved 500 million in summer
© Imago
Simon Rolfes, Managing Director of Bayer Leverkusen, ensured two records in German football this summer: he has committed 198 million euros and sold players for EUR 281 million – including the 2026 -grapping obligation for Piero Hincapié, the Arsenal will cost 52 million euros.
“If you have high income, it is not so easy to get players cheap. So we do it if we know that the receiving club has great financial resources,” said Rolfes in an interview with the “Picture“-Zeitung. Bayer, for example, paid for the transfers by Malik Tillman (PSV), Jarell Quansah (Liverpool), Elise Ben Seghir (Monaco) and Equi Fernández (al-Qadsiah) clearly about market value-the negotiating partners knew exactly how much the sales of Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Co. had.
“If we were somewhat over it this summer at player investments, it is due to the very high income. It will be different again next summer. We could no longer invest in a comparable level like 2019 and 2020 because we had to go one step further in quality,” said Rolfes. At that time, the sale of Kai Havertz flushed 100 million euros towards Chelsea.
Rolfes about Wirtz: “For Flo, to break out of this framework”
Although the own transfer record for a player was broken twice this summer, Bayer has decided against investing more than 35 million euros per transfer. “There are boundaries – with the replacement and also with the salaries. And we never left our way with the salaries, even this summer. Sure, we invested more in the replacement, we did more in 2020 after the sale of Kai Havertz. But you must not leave the structure of your team with the salaries. This is dangerous because it cannot be captured so quickly.”
Wirtz was reported to quadruple his salary in the course of the transfer to Liverpool at around EUR 20 million gross. Rolfes would have made an exception for the most valuable German footballer together with Jamal Musiala: “We would have been ready to break out of this framework. Especially since it would probably not have been more than another year. We all know what Florian Wirtz meant for the team, the fans, the association, the region and also for Bayer 04 internationally. has developed an extraordinary standing in all facets over the years. ”
Bayer’s latest access has to work out his standing in the club: coach Kasper Hjulmand replaced Erik Ten Hag, who had to go in record time after the 2nd Bundesliga matchday. According to Rolfes, the 3: 3 at Werder Bremen, in which one led to 3: 1, was not decisive for the separation: “Before the game in Bremen, we made the decision to separate. There was no moment as a trigger. The overall picture – it was always with Erik and so it should always be – led to the decision.”
Hjulmand was not free at the time of negotiations with Bayer, but was under contract with the Danish Football Association as a consultant. “We wanted him to have it in summer, but it didn’t work because of its known obligations. It was still not clear whether we could get Kasper out because this is a very important topic for him personally and for the future of Danish football. But we noticed: The door is far ahead, then we put our foot in. Want to train, Ideal suits us, ”says Rolfes.
Between the end of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season and the 3rd matchday 2025/26, Rolfes signed dozens of contracts with players and trainers. Xabi Alonso, including coaching team, moved to Real Madrid, Ten Hag came and went before Hjulmand signed until 2027. In the course of the 17 Bayer access for the professional squad plus 17 departures, Rolfes moved around 500 million euros-more than ever one manager of a Bundesliga club before in a transfer window.