Julian Weigl (born 8 September 1995) is a German 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 lea ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

club

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

. He has also represented the Germany national team.

Club career

1860 Munich

Weigl is a youth export from

1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; ''sechzig'' locally ; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of the German football pyramid. Their current home gr ...

. He made his 2. Bundesliga debut at 14 February 2014 against Ingolstadt 04. He replaced Yannick Stark after 66 minutes in a 2–0 away defeat. He managed to play 14 league games in his first season with TSV's first team. In the first match of the 2014–15 season against

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; ) is a town in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, 666 kilometers (414 m ...

. Weigl, being only 18 years old, was named captain. He is therefore the youngest captain in the history of 1860 Munich. After the second match of the season Weigl was fined and suspended to the second squad along with his teammates Vitus Eicher, Daniel Adlung and Yannick Stark. The four players had been out drinking late at night and were overheard talking negatively about the club. Weigl was relieved of the captaincy and succeeded by Christopher Schindler.

Borussia Dortmund

After the 2014–15 season, Weigl transferred to Borussia Dortmund, where he signed a contract until 2019. Julian Weigl made his official Dortmund debut on Saturday 15 August 2015 in a 4–0 home victory against

. He made his

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

debut a month after, when he came on in the 60th minute as a substitute against

FC Krasnodar FC Krasnodar is a Russian professional football club based in Krasnodar that plays in the Russian Premier League. They are the league's reigning champions. The club was founded in 2008. In 2009, the club was promoted to the Russian First Divis ...

. Weigl's remarkable play earned him a starting place in Dortmund and helped them finish 2nd in the Bundesliga and also played regularly as Dortmund went deep into the Europa league, before being knocked out by

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. He scored his first goal for Dortmund which was also his first professional goal against

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, scoring the winner from outside the box in the 2–1 win. Weigl signed a new contract with Borussia on 21 December, keeping him at the club until 2021. On 13 May 2017, he suffered a fractured ankle in BVB's 1–1 away draw against

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. T ...

. On 18 May 2017, Weigl underwent a successful surgery on his injury, but would be out for three to four months. He returned to Dortmund's XI on 24 September 2017 in BVB's 6–1 home victory against

Benfica

On 31 December 2019, Benfica announced an agreement with Dortmund to sign Weigl for €20 million. On 2 January 2020, Weigl arrived in Lisbon, where he completed the required physical examination before getting to know his new stadium, signing a contract through 30 June 2024 and being officially introduced to the supporters of his new club.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

On 1 September 2022,

announced an agreement to sign Weigl on loan from Benfica. On 5 May 2023, Borussia Mönchengladbach triggered Weigl's buyout clause of €7 million, signing him on a permanent five-year deal.

International career

Weigl started to represent Germany at youth levels during the qualification for the 2014 European Under-19 Championship, which was eventually won by Germany. He was part of the U-20 squad in August 2014. On 13 October 2014, Weigl scored his first international goal in a 1–1 draw against the Netherlands U20. Weigl made his debut for the Germany U-21 team on 3 September 2015, in a friendly match against

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Rewarded for a fine Bundesliga debut with a place in Germany's provisional squad for

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

, Weigl debuted for the Germany senior squad when he came off the bench in a 3–1 friendly defeat against

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

: 2016–17 *

DFL-Supercup The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off association football, football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (E ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Benfica *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Individual * Facebook FA Bundesliga Newcomer of the Year: 2016 * VDV Newcomer of the Season: 2015–16

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weigl, Julian 1995 births Living people People from Bad Aibling Footballers from Upper Bavaria German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders TSV 1860 Munich players TSV 1860 Munich II players Borussia Dortmund players S.L. Benfica footballers Borussia Mönchengladbach players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Primeira Liga players Germany men's youth international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2016 players German expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal German expatriate sportspeople in Portugal 21st-century German sportsmen