Legend: Simon Rolfes - The strategist on the field and in the office

Over the next few years, Simon mainly played for the Werder second team, although he was a member of the Werder Bremen 2004 double-winning squad, but was loaned out to SSV Reutlingen in Bundesliga 2 in January 2004. After six months, he moved on to Alemannia Aachen, where he experienced one of the most exciting times in the club's history. As a second division team, Aachen qualified for Europe by reaching the DFB Pokal final, which they lost to Werder Bremen. For the first time, the strategically-minded midfielder played on the European stage against teams like AEK Athens, Sevilla, Zenit St. Petersburg and Lille. However, Alemannia went out in the Round of 16. However, their performances were impressive. And as Simon wanted to stay in the Rhineland, the approach from Bayer 04 came at just the right time.

Debut for the Werkself in Frankfurt

From the 2005/06 season, the blonde number six played under the Bayer Cross. On matchday 1, his childhood dream came true - he came on for the last quarter of an hour in a 4-1 away win in Frankfurt. Three matchdays later, Simon was in the starting eleven for the first time. He made 32 appearances for the Black and Reds in his first season. Bayer 04 fans quickly took a liking to the ball-playing midfielder with the lungs of a horse. Especially when he celebrated his first Bundesliga goal with them in front of the Nordkurve a few weeks later: Standing with his back to the goal, Simon fluently receives a pass from Athirson with the sole of his foot and resolutely slams the ball into the net. And not in just in any old game, but in the derby against FC Köln. Simon's goal to make it 2-0 was the winner (final score 2-1). He had finally arrived at the Werkself.

the perennial favourite

From that derby game, on matchday six in the 2005/06 season, Simon played 131 consecutive Bundesliga games for the Werkself, almost all of them over the full 90 minutes. The all-time favourite. The highlight of the 2007/08 season: Rolfes played in all 34 league games and was only off the pitch for a total of three minutes, scoring eight goals. He played for almost four consecutive seasons.

In 2007, Simon also made his debut for Germany. He was in the squad for the 2008 European Championships, played in the quarter-finals and semi-finals in Austria and Switzerland, but watched the 1-0 defeat in the final against Spain from the bench and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa written thick in his diary.

Hard times and a famous Comeback

Simon Rolfes captained the Werkself from 2008 and has also started 33 times under coach Bruno Labbadia. Following victories against FC Bayern and FSV Mainz 05, among others, he leads his team into the DFB Pokal final, where they unfortunately lose 1-0 to his old employers Werder Bremen. But this was not the only setback in the summer of 2009: his knee gave up. First comes a meniscus operation, followed a few months later by the next setbacks: first a torn ligament, then cartilage damage in the knee, further operations and almost a year of forced absence. The perennial favourite becomes a permanent patient.

A year full of worries and self-doubt, setbacks and helplessness. But Rolfes fights his way back step by step - carefully guided by Bayer 04 coach Jupp Heynckes and with great help from Bayer 04 performance diagnostician Holger Broich - and celebrates a spectacular comeback as a leader. 16 October 2010, the game at VfL Wolfsburg, Simon comes on after 69 minutes. The protagonist remembers it like this: "It was crazy, like in a film. I felt particularly good that day. It was 1-0 to Wolfsburg, time was running out and I asked myself why I wasn't finally coming on. When I was finally called on and put on my jersey, the score was 2-0. I threw down my water bottle and cursed. Then I went on the pitch. When I scored the equaliser from a free-kick, we realised as a team that something was happening. I won the penalty that Arturo Vidal converted, and then, after a corner, I was in the right place again to tap the ball in to make it 3-2. All that happened in twelve minutes."

the career after the career

On 16 May 2015, after a total of 377 appearances for the Werkself, in which he scored 49 goals, the fans at the BayArena paid homage to Simon Rolfes for the last time in a 2-0 win against Hoffenheim. One week later, his professional career ended in Frankfurt - where he made his Bundesliga debut ten years earlier.

It didn't take long for him to kick-start his second career. Together with Dr Markus Elsässer, Simon founded a consultancy agency for young competitive athletes and, together with his partner, took over GoalControl GmbH, a goal-line technology company. As a ZDF football pundit, he regularly analysed Bundesliga matchday events in the Sportreportage programme. In addition, the father of three daughters, who still plays for the Bayer 04 Veterans team from time to time, successfully completed his Master for International Players (MIP), an almost two-year programme offered by UEFA. In addition to Simon, former top international stars such as Frenchmen Christian Karembeu and Eric Abidal, Portuguese Nuno Gomes and Brazilian Juninho are equipped with the necessary skills for a later career in administration or football management.

back in Leverkusen

In the summer of 2018, Simon returned to Leverkusen and, as "Head of Youth and Development" at Bayer 04, was initially responsible for the conceptual design and further development of youth teams at Kurtekotten. A few months later, he succeeded Jonas Boldt as the new sporting director at Bayer 04 and from then on worked with Rudi Völler and Fernando Carro to build a squad that would take Bayer 04 to the top of German football.

On 1 July 2022, Simon Rolfes succeeded club legend Rudi Völler as Managing Director Sport at Bayer 04 and brings Xabi Alonso on board as coach in October 2022. The rest is history and will remain forever unforgotten.