Simon Rolfes (born 21 January 1982) is a German former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

Club career

Early career

Rolfes started his career at

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

after progressing through their academy. During the 2000–01 season, he scored five goals in 26 league appearances for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

. He scored against

Dresdner SC Dresdner Sportclub 1898 e.V., known simply as Dresdner SC, is a German multisport club playing in Dresden, Saxony. Founded on 30 April 1898, the club was a founding member of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball Bund) in 1900. Th ...

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

Lüneburger SK Lüneburger Sport-Klub von 1901 e. V. was one of the oldest and most successful football clubs from the Lüneburg area until it merged with Lüneburger SV in 2008 to become Lüneburger SK Hansa. History The club was established on 1 April 1901 ...

Erzgebirge Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. Liga in 2008–09, ...

, and

Fortuna Köln Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until a ...

. He also made an appearances in the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

. He would score seven goals in 31 league appearances and a goal in two

during the 2001–02 season and two goals in 17 league appearances and an appearance during the

during the 2002–03 season. He also made a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

appearance for the first team during the 2002–03 season. The match was an 8–0 against Metalurh Donetsk on 3 October 2002. He came on in the 68th minute during for Krisztián Lisztes. He then was loaned for the remainder of the season with SSV Reutlingen 05 where he made 13 appearances. In his final season with the reserve team, he scored four goals in 26 league appearances. He made exactly 100 league appearances and four

appearances for the reserve team and managed to notch 19 goals (one in the DFB-Pokal) from his defensive midfield position. Despite his good form, SV Werder Bremen manager

Thomas Schaaf Thomas Schaaf (born 30 April 1961) is a German professional football manager, who last managed Werder Bremen and former player who played as a defender currently assistant coach of Laos national football team. A 'one-club man', Schaaf spent his ...

did not feature him as a regular, so in 2004 he moved to Alemannia Aachen and scored three goals in 28 league appearances in his one season there. He also made two appearances in the

and seven appearances in the

Bayer Leverkusen

Year 2005 came out to be a crucial year for Rolfes, with

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

signing him and since then he has become a fan favorite, quickly winning a regular spot and not much after, captaincy in the full squad. He appeared in 37 matches in the 2005–06 season, 49 in the 2006–07 season, 47 in the 2007–08 season, and 39 in the 2008–09 season. Rolfes suffered a serious knee injury on 2 July 2009. During the 2009–10 season, Rolfes missed matchdays 10 to 17 and made his final appearance on matchday 19 against

1899 Hoffenheim Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft 1899 Hoffenheim e.V., or simply TSG 1899 Hoffenheim or just Hoffenheim () is a German professional football club based in Hoffenheim, a village of Sinsheim municipality, Baden-Württemberg. Originally founded in 189 ...

. He made only 13 appearances in all competitions during the season. He missed out on the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

in South Africa. He returned to fitness the following season. He appeared in 36 matches in all competitions. He continued to be a regular late into his career. He made 40 appearances in the 2011–12 and

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

seasons, 43 in 2013–14 season, and 33 in the 2014–15 season. On 7 December 2014, he announced his decision to retire from football after the 2014–15 season.

International career

Simon_Rolfes_during_friendly_match_Germany-South_Africa_on_September_5,_2009

Rolfes made his international debut for

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in a friendly against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

on 28 March 2007 in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

. He was part of the German team that finished as runners-up at

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

. Rolfes started in the quarter-finals against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, which Germany won 3–2, and started the semi-finals against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, also in

, which they also won 3–2. Rolfes scored his first goal on 6 September 2008 in a 2010 World Cup qualifier, a 6–0 win against

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarch ...

. Rolfes was set to be called up to German squad for the

, but he got injured and missed the competition and more than ten first games of the 2010–11 season for the "Werkself".

Personal life

Rolfes married his wife, Jenny on 12 June 2009. The couple has three daughters: Livia-Marie (born 24 May 2010), Victoria Amelie (born 27 November 2012) and Charlotte Sophie (born 17 July 2015).

Career statistics

Club

*1.Includes

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

and UEFA Cup/Europa League.

International

:''Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Rolfes goal.''

Honours

Bayer Leverkusen *

runner-up: 2008–09 *

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

runner-up:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

References

External links

* * * *
Leverkusen who's who
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rolfes, Simon 1982 births Living people People from Ibbenbüren Sportspeople from Münster (region) German footballers Germany international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers SV Werder Bremen players SV Werder Bremen II players Alemannia Aachen players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players SSV Reutlingen 05 players UEFA Euro 2008 players Germany B international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Association football midfielders Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia