When the first European Championship was held in 1960, VfL Wolfsburg was playing in the amateur league in Lower Saxony. It took four decades for the first VfL player to participate in a tournament. Another 24 years later, there are now more representatives than ever before. What traces can be found of the Wolves in the history of the European Championship? The green and white colored data and facts about the tournament that started on Friday evening provide some answers.
In the 337 European Championship matches played so far, 16 different VfL Wolfsburg players have taken part. Pavao Pervan was also closely involved, as the third goalkeeper for Austria in 2021, although he did not play any games. A special case is Simon Kjaer, who played in 2012 for AS Roma but was loaned to them from the Green-Whites.
The most experienced Wolves in the European Championship have played in the Swiss jersey, namely Diego Benaglio (2008), Ricardo Rodriguez (2016), Kevin Mbabu, and Admir Mehmedi (both in 2021). Soon, Cedric Zesiger could become the fifth Swiss player to join the list.
The first European Championship player from Wolfsburg was Romanian Dorinel Munteanu, who played in the tournament in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2000 as the first Green-White player in a European Championship. He played four games and became the pioneer for scoring goals in the European Championship for the team. In the 3-2 victory over England, the VfL midfielder scored the equalizer, making it 2-2.
Overall, VfL Wolfsburg has scored nine goals in the history of the European Championship. The top scorers were Mario Mandzukic (three goals) and Petr Jiracek (two). Martin Petrov, Julian Draxler, and Wout Weghorst each scored one goal as well.
In terms of Bundesliga representation at the current tournament, only RB Leipzig (eleven players) as well as Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen and FC Bayern Munich (both with ten players) have sent more players than VfL Wolfsburg, who have eight players participating. In 2021, the team’s previous record was six players at the tournament.