Manuel Neuer poised to join Bundesliga's top 10 oldest players of all time
If Manuel Neuer makes his 543rd Bundesliga appearance when Bayern Munich travel to face Freiburg on Matchday 28, the veteran custodian will become only the 11th player over 40 years of age to have featured in a Bundesliga game.
Neuer made his Bundesliga debut all the way back in August 2006 after coming through Schalke's prestigious academy, where he had been developing as a youngster since first joining in 1991.
Nearly 20 years later and the goalkeeper has won it all. Among his incredible achievements are a World Cup, two UEFA Champions Leagues, 12 Bundesliga Meisterschales, and six DFB Cups.
The definitive face of the modern era of goalkeeping, Neuer has accumulated 542 career Bundesliga appearances - in addition to 124 international caps and 157 UEFA Champions League outings - which leaves him in sixth place for record Bundesliga appearance makers, just four off fifth-placed Mirko Votava.
Watch: The best of Neuer so far in 2025/26
With that particular accolade in his sights, Neuer can also leapfrog journeyman shot-stopper Claus Reitmaier to outright claim 10th place in the rankings for the oldest ever Bundesliga appearance makers, should he feature in any game from Matchday 29's away trip to St. Pauli onwards.
But who else makes the list?
1) Klaus Fichtel: 43 years, six months, two days
The grand-daddy of them all is Klaus Fichtel. Most would have expected a goalkeeper to top the ranking, but it's the Schalke icon who holds the all-time record.
He featured in a 4-1 home loss to Werder Bremen on 21 May, 1988, to set a mark that will take some beating.
2) Ulrich Stein: 42 years, five months, 19 days
Taking the runner-up spot is the first of the goalkeepers on this list, Ulrich Stein, who made 512 Bundesliga appearances across spells for Eintracht Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Arminia Bielefeld.
It was during his second spell with the latter that Stein made his final Bundesliga appearance, bowing out after a 1-1 home draw with HSV on Matchday 27 of the 1996/97 campaign.
3) Toni Schumacher: 42 years, two months, 12 days
Despite being Cologne's record appearance maker in the top flight (422), it was at Borussia Dortmund where Schumacher played his final Bundesliga game.
Returning to professional football following a three-year career hiatus after last playing for Bayern in the 1991/92 season, Schumacher appeared just once for Die Schwarzgelben: on the final day of 1995/96 in a 3-2 victory over Freiburg, after which Dortmund were crowned Bundesliga champions.
4) Claudio Pizarro: 41 years, eight months, 24 days
Fourth overall, the former Peru international forward is the second-oldest outfield player ever to grace the Bundesliga.
He made the last of his 490 Bundesliga appearances - the record for a non-German player, and 17th overall - in a 6-1 win for Bremen against Cologne on 27 June 2020 in what was his fourth spell with the northerners.
Watch: The best of Pizarro in the Bundesliga
5) Mirko Votava: 40 years, seven months, 11 days
Maybe there is something in the water in Bremen, because it is another Werder player who is just behind Pizarro.
Votava was born in Prague, then the capital of Czechoslovakia, but after the 'Prague Spring' of 1968, he moved with his family to Germany, and would eventually represent West Germany at international level.
The defensive midfielder clocked up an astonishing 546 Bundesliga games - the fifth-most ever - after making his debut at Dortmund in 1974, and bookending it for Bremen in a 1-1 draw with 1860 Munich on 6 December 1996.
6) Bernd Dreher: 40 years, six months, 17 days
Trumping Neuer as the oldest Bayern goalkeeper to have played in the Bundesliga is one Bernd Dreher. A legend for Uerdingen, who now play in Germany's fifth tier, Dreher joined the Munich outfit at the end of 1995/96, after Uerdingen's relegation.
He went on to make 13 appearances for the record champions between 1996 and 2003, when Deher originally retired to take up the position of youth goalkeeping coach.
However, after revealing that he was "actually training more now than when I was a full professional," Dreher was summoned back to first-team duties for the 2005/06 and 2006/07 seasons, making his final appearance in 5-2 thrashing of Mainz on the final day of the 2006/07 campaign before hanging up his gloves for good.
7) Jens Lehmann: 40 years, five months, 28 days
Another Schalke academy goalkeeping product, Lehmann spent over a decade on the Royal Blues' books between 1987 and 1998. A spell at AC Milan followed before Lehmann returned to Germany to join bitter rivals Dortmund.
After another stint abroad, this time at Arsenal, Lehmann returned to his homeland.
Playing for VfB Stuttgart between 2008 and 2010, Lehmann would play his final game in a 1-1 draw away to Hoffenheim on the final day of the 2009/10 season, before calling time on a Bundesliga career in which he made 394 total appearances.
8) Manfred Burgsmüller: 40 years, four months, 20 days
A striker or attacking midfielder, Burgsmüller clocked up over 200 appearances for Dortmund, but was most successful in the final five years of his career at Bremen.
When he joined Werder in 1985, he was already 35 but had finished the previous season as Bundesliga 2's leading scorer. Burgsmüller then won his sole Bundesliga title in 1987/88, and claimed two DFB Cup runners-up medals with the Green-Whites.
But most remarkably, he scored in Bremen's European Cup game against BFC Dynamo on 11 October 1988 to set a record at 38 years and 293 days for the oldest goalscorer in European club football's elite competition. It was only broken by Portugal legend Pepe in 2023.
9) Makoto Hasebe: 40 years, four months
Hasebe made his Bundesliga debut in February 2008 shortly after joining Wolfsburg from Urawa Reds. Nearly 15 years later, and after turning 40 on 18 January, 2024 the 2008/09 Bundesliga winner joined this select group of 40-somethings to have played in the top tier of German football.
In addition to his inclusion on this list, Hasebe - with 384 career Bundesliga appearances - is the most tenured Asian player in Bundesliga history, surpassing the once-thought unassailable record of 308 posted by South Korean icon Cha Bum-kun, once of Frankfurt and Leverkusen in the 1970s and 80s.
Watch: Hasebe's best goal-line clearances
After Wolfsburg, came a brief spell in Nuremberg before a move to Frankfurt materialised in 2014, where he would stay for 10 seasons before making his final appearance in a 2-2 draw against Leipzig on the final day of 2023/24.
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