VfL Wolfsburg

Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (pronounced [ˌfaʊ ʔɛf ʔɛl ˈvɔlfsbʊɐ̯k]), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. It is best known for its football department, but other departments include badminton, handball and athletics.

The men's professional football team play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, the DFB-Pokal in 2015 and the DFL-Supercup in 2015.

Professional football is run by the spin-off organization VfL Wolfsburg-Fußball GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group.^[2][3] Since 2002, Wolfsburg's stadium is the Volkswagen Arena.

The city of Wolfsburg was established on 1 July 1938 under the name Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben to accommodate workers for the newly constructed Volkswagen factory, which was intended to produce the KdF-Wagen—later known as the Volkswagen Beetle. The adjacent factory and town were part of a broader initiative to create an affordable car for the German populace during the Third Reich.^[4]

The first football club associated with the Volkswagen plant was BSG Volkswagenwerk Stadt des KdF-Wagen, a typical works team of the era. This team competed in the Gauliga Osthannover, the top division of regional football, during the 1943–44 and 1944–45 seasons.^[5]

Following the end of World War II, a new club was formed on 12 September 1945, initially named VSK Wolfsburg. The team adopted green and white as its colors, a tradition that continues to this day. According to club lore, local youth coach Bernd Elberskirch provided ten green jerseys, and white shorts were fashioned from donated bed sheets sewn by local women.

On 15 December 1945, the club faced a significant setback when all but one of its players left to join the newly formed 1. FC Wolfsburg. The sole remaining player, Josef Meyer, collaborated with Willi Hilbert to rebuild the team by recruiting new members. The reorganised club adopted the name VfL Wolfsburg, with VfL standing for Verein für Leibesübungen, which translates to "Club for Physical Exercise."^[6]

Within a year, VfL Wolfsburg secured the local Gifhorn championship. In late November 1946, the club played a friendly match against the prominent Gelsenkirchen team Schalke 04 at the Volkswagen-owned stadium, marking its emergence as the company's officially supported team.

The club made slow but steady progress in the following seasons. They captured a number of amateur level championships, but were unable to advance out of the promotion playoffs until finally breaking through to the top tier Oberliga Nord in 1954 with a 2–1 victory over Heider SV. Wolfsburg, however, struggled in the top flight, narrowly missing relegation each season until finally being sent down in 1959. When Germany's first professional football league, the Bundesliga, was formed in 1963, Wolfsburg was playing in the Regionalliga Nord (II), having just moved up from the Verbandsliga Niedersachsen (III), reaching the German Amateur Championship Final that same year (0–1 vs. VfB Stuttgart Amat.).

Wolfsburg remained a second division team^[7] over the next dozen years with their best performance being a second-place finish in 1970. That finish earned the club entry to the promotion round playoffs for the Bundesliga, where they performed poorly^[8] and were unable to advance. From the mid-1970s through to the early 1990s, Wolfsburg played as a third division side in the Amateur Oberliga Nord. Consecutive first-place finishes in 1991 and 1992, followed by success in the promotion playoffs, saw the club advance to the 2. Bundesliga for the 1992–93 season.^[9]

Wolfsburg continued to experience some success through the 1990s. The team advanced to the final of the German Cup in 1995 where they were beaten 0–3 by Borussia Mönchengladbach, but then went on to the top flight on the strength of a second-place league finish in 1997.

Despite their recent promotion, Wolfsburg developed into a mid-table Bundesliga side. In the 1998–99 season, Wolfsburg, under Wolfgang Wolf, were holding onto the fifth spot in the 33rd round of fixtures, and they had hopes of making fourth place, to gain UEFA Champions League participation. Losing 6–1 away to MSV Duisburg in the final fixture, Wolfsburg finished in sixth place with 55 points and qualified for next season's UEFA Cup. They also qualified for the Intertoto Cup in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005, enjoying their best run in 2003 after reaching the final in which they lost to Italian side Perugia. This was followed by a couple of seasons of little success for the club, just narrowly avoiding relegation with two 15th-place finishes in the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons.

Ahead of the 2007–08 Bundesliga season, Wolfsburg appointed former Bayern Munich manager Felix Magath. The club finished fifth, their highest league position at the time, and qualified for the UEFA Cup for only the second time.

Under Magath, Wolfsburg achieved the greatest success in the club's history by winning the 2008–09 Bundesliga, sealing the title with a 5–1 victory over Werder Bremen on 23 May 2009. The team recorded ten consecutive league wins after the winter break, equalling the Bundesliga record for a single season. Strikers Grafite and Edin Džeko each scored more than 20 league goals, while Zvjezdan Misimović provided 20 assists.^[10] The title secured Wolfsburg's first qualification for the UEFA Champions League.

The following season, Wolfsburg dismissed head coach Armin Veh during the winter break with the club tenth in the league. In the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League, they finished third in their group behind Manchester United and CSKA Moscow, entering the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League, where they reached the quarter-finals before being eliminated by Fulham.

Former England manager Steve McClaren was appointed head coach in May 2010, becoming the first English manager in Bundesliga history. He was dismissed in February 2011 and replaced by Pierre Littbarski.^[11] Following a run of poor results that left the club in the relegation zone, Wolfsburg reappointed Magath as head coach and sporting director in March 2011.^[12] He secured Bundesliga survival but left by mutual consent in October 2012 after a poor start to the season. Dieter Hecking was appointed head coach in December 2012.

Wolfsburg enjoyed renewed success during the 2014–15 season. The club finished runners-up in the 2014–15 Bundesliga and qualified for the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League. On 30 May 2015, Wolfsburg won the 2015 DFB-Pokal final with a 3–1 victory over Borussia Dortmund, securing the first DFB-Pokal in the club's history. They opened the following season by defeating Bayern Munich on penalties in the 2015 DFL-Supercup. During the 2015 summer transfer window, Kevin De Bruyne was sold to Manchester City for a Bundesliga record transfer fee.

In the 2015–16 Bundesliga season, Wolfsburg finished eighth. In the Champions League, they reached the quarter-finals for the first time, where they faced Real Madrid and, despite a two-goal aggregate lead from the first match, were eliminated after losing 3–0 at the Bernabéu.

Wolfsburg subsequently entered a period of sporting instability marked by relegation battles and frequent managerial changes. On the final matchday of the 2016–17 Bundesliga season, defeat to Hamburger SV dropped the club from 15th to 16th place.^[13] Wolfsburg retained their Bundesliga status by defeating regional rivals Eintracht Braunschweig 2–0 on aggregate in the relegation play-offs.^[14] The following season brought further upheaval. Head coach Andries Jonker was dismissed in September 2017 and replaced by Martin Schmidt, who resigned in February 2018. Bruno Labbadia took charge and guided the club into the relegation play-offs once again, where Wolfsburg defeated Holstein Kiel 4–1 on aggregate to remain in the Bundesliga.^[15]

Ahead of the 2018–19 Bundesliga season, Jörg Schmadtke was appointed managing director for sport, with former Wolfsburg captain Marcel Schäfer becoming sporting director.^[16] Under Labbadia, Wolfsburg finished sixth and qualified for the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League. They were eliminated in the qualifying play-off round by AEK Athens.^[17]

Labbadia departed in 2019 and was succeeded by Oliver Glasner.^[18] Wolfsburg finished seventh in 2019–20 and fourth in the 2020–21 Bundesliga, qualifying for the UEFA Champions League 2021–22. Glasner left the club at the end of the season following disagreements with club management.^[19]

Under successor Mark van Bommel, Wolfsburg began the 2021–22 Bundesliga season with four consecutive wins but were eliminated from the DFB-Pokal after a substitution error and subsequently endured a run of poor results.^[20] Van Bommel was dismissed in October 2021 and replaced by Florian Kohfeldt, who secured Bundesliga survival with a 12th-place finish but left the club at the end of the season.^[21] Wolfsburg finished bottom of their Champions League group.^[22]

On 24 May 2022, Wolfsburg appointed Niko Kovač as head coach on a three-year contract. His tenure ended in March 2024.^[23][24] He was replaced by Ralph Hasenhüttl, who led the club to an eleventh-place finish in 2024–25. He was dismissed at the end of the season.^[25] Dutch coach Paul Simonis was appointed in June 2025 but was dismissed after ten league matches, with youth coach Daniel Bauer initially taking interim charge before being appointed permanent head coach in December 2025.^[26][27][28]

Wolfsburg plays at the Volkswagen Arena, a multi-purpose stadium which seats a total capacity of 30,000 spectators. Before construction was finished in 2002, Wolfsburg played their home games at the 21,600 capacity VfL-Stadium. The stadium is currently used mostly for the home games of Wolfsburg, and is the site where they won their first Bundesliga title in the 2008–09 season. The amateur squad and the women's association football section is playing since 2015 at the newly built AOK Stadion with a capacity of 5200 people. There is also a new VfL-Center with offices and training areas and the VfL-FußballWelt, an interactive exhibition about the VfL.

• Bundesliga:
  • Winners: 2008–09
  • Runners-up: 2014–15
• DFB-Pokal:
  • Winners: 2014–15
  • Runners-up: 1994–95
• DFL-Supercup:
  • Winners: 2015

• Deutsche Amateurmeisterschaft:
  • Runners-up: 1963
• Amateuroberliga Niedersachsen-Ost (II):
  • Winners: 1952, 1954, 1963
• Regionalliga Nord (II):
  • Runners-up: 1970
• Oberliga Nord (III):
  • Winners: 1991, 1992
  • Runners-up: 1976, 1978, 1988
• Lower Saxony Cup (Tiers 3–5):
  • Winners: 1962, 2002, 2003

• German Under 19 championship:
  • Winners: 2010–11, 2012–13
  • Runners-up: 2007–08
• Under 19 Bundesliga North/Northeast:
  • Winners: 2007–08, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13
• Under 17 Bundesliga North/Northeast:
  • Winners: 2008–09, 2015–16
• Weifang Cup:
  • Winners: 2015, 2017

As of 2 February 2026^[29][30]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Following the death of Junior Malanda in 2015, the club retired the number 19 shirt.^[31] Subsequently, individual players have been nominated by the club to wear that number in his honour. In the 2019–20 season, Kevin Mbabu wore it,^[32] followed by Lovro Majer, and then Jesper Lindstrøm.

The women's team have won a treble of Bundesliga, DFB Pokal and the UEFA Women's Champions League in 2012–13. They defended their Champions League title in 2014.

As of 9 March 2026

Includes appearances in all competitions.

Includes goals in all competitions.

• Works team

• Official website (in German)
• VfL Wolfsburg at Bundesliga
• VfL Wolfsburg at UEFA