Wolfsburg relegated from the Bundesliga after 29 seasons in top flight
After 29 uninterrupted years in Germany’s top flight, Wolfsburg have been relegated from the Bundesliga following Monday's defeat to Paderborn in the play-off second leg.
Having occupied a place in the bottom two for much of 2026, the Wolves managed to haul themselves out of the Bundesliga’s automatic drop zone thanks to a run of five points from three games between Matchdays 30 and 32.
They granted themselves a say of execution after beating - and relegating - St. Pauli on the final day, but could not get over the line in the relegation/ promotion play-off. After a goalless first leg on home soil, their fate was confirmed in a 2-1 extra-time loss at Paderborn, who trade places with Dieter Hecking's side.
Wolfsburg only narrowly avoided relegation in 2016/17 and 2017/18, beating Eintracht Braunschweig in the 2017 play-off before denying Holstein Kiel a place in the top flight 12 months later.
However, the Lower Saxony outfit were playing UEFA Champions League football as recently as 2021, having stormed to a fourth-place Bundesliga finish the season before under Austrian head coach Oliver Glasner.
The club had firmly established themselves as continental regulars by that stage, securing five top-seven finishes between 2014 and 2021 and reaching the Champions League quarter-finals in 2015/16, when they gave Real Madrid an almighty scare.
Inspired by Kevin De Bruyne’s assists and Bas Dost’s nose for goal, Hecking’s Wolves had finished runners-up to Bayern in 2014/15 but still managed to get their hands on silverware that season, famously defeating Borussia Dortmund to win the DFB Cup before overcoming the Bavarians in the DFL Supercup two months later.
Their greatest achievement of the last 29 years, however, came in 2009, when Felix Magath’s star-studded side upset the odds to win the Bundesliga title for the first time in their history.
Strikers Grafite and Edin Džeko scored a combined 54 goals between them that season – a record that still stands to this day – while Zvjezdan Misimović’s tally of 20 assists was an all-time high until De Bruyne matched it in 2015. The duo shared the record until 2019/20, when Thomas Müller registered 21 assists.
Wolfsburg had enjoyed Bundesliga football for 29 consecutive seasons, prior to the Paderborn loss. They previously yo-yoed between the second tier and lower leagues of German football.
