Officially! Karim Bellarabi leaves the Bundesliga

The former national player Karim Bellarabi stops at the Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen and ends his active career in Germany. As the club announced on Tuesday, the currently injured winger will take off the Bayer shirt at the end of the season.

“It was a really incredible time for me,” the 33-year-old is quoted as saying. The “well-considered step” hurts him very, very much.

Bellarabi moved to Leverkusen in 2011 from what was then third division side Eintracht Braunschweig and represented the Werkself in 290 competitive games both nationally and internationally. The native of Berlin scored 57 goals and added another 66 goals.

Sports director Simon Rolfes, who is still active with Bellarabi at Bayer, described the eleven-time international as a “sporting figurehead”. It is all the more important for Leverkusen to move into the final of the Europa League against AS Roma on Thursday (9 p.m. / RTL). “Karim more than deserved this culmination of his Werkself career,” said Rolfes.

Bellarabi doesn’t want to stop completely. If his body plays along, he will consider continuing his career outside of Europe, but that is still “future music”.