Niclas Füllkrug

The 31-year-old attacker has been under contract with Borussia Dortmund since 31 August 2023, when he signed from Werder Bremen. As of June 2024 (cut-off date for all statistics), he has made 43 appearances (15 goals / 10 assists) for BVB across all competitions.

Niclas Füllkrug was born in Hannover and grew up in the district of Ricklingen. His father Andreas not only played for the local sports club, but also coached youth teams there, including his son's, whose talent was recognised early on. In the 2001/02 season, Niclas scored 162 goals as an eight-year-old. His sister Anna-Lena is also a football enthusiast. She plays in the women's Regionalliga for Hannover 96 and as children they spent a lot of time together on the football pitch, he told the Hannoversche Allgemeine a few years ago, adding: “I always liked to take her with me. At some point, she got better than some of my mates and then I liked taking her with me even more.”

These sentences also clearly emphasise the character and down-to-earth nature of the current Germany striker, who married his childhood sweetheart, Lisa, in 2016. His daughter Emilia was born in 2019. However, his career did not start in Hannover, but in Bremen, around 120 kilometres away. He moved to SV Werder at the age of 13 and a year later joined the club's youth academy.

In the 2011/12 season, Füllkrug made his first appearances in the second team, which was playing in the 3. Liga at the time. On 21 January 2012, he made his first appearance in the professional squad in a match away to Kaiserslautern. A week later he made his Bundesliga debut in the home match against Bayer Leverkusen (1-1). He scored his first goal in March 2012.

After missing the entire second half of the 2012/13 season due to a knee injury and not playing in the first three matches of the following season, Füllkrug initially went on loan to second division club Greuther Fürth. In the summer of 2014, 1. FC Nürnberg signed him permanently. After missing out on promotion (in the play-off against Eintracht Frankfurt), he returned to his hometown and wore the jersey of Hannover 96, who had been relegated from the Bundesliga that year, for the first time. With five goals in the second half of the season, he contributed to the club's promotion, and in his first full Bundesliga season he played in all 34 games and scored 14 goals.

 SV Werder brought the striker back to the Weser in the summer of 2019. Apart from a ten-month break following a cruciate ligament rupture, he was now a fixture in attack. In view of his performances, Füllkrug was considered a potential candidate for the World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year in autumn 2022. He was actually nominated for the tournament and also came on as a substitute in all three games for the German team, scoring two of the six German goals. He ended the season as Bremen's first Bundesliga golden boot winner in the Bundesliga since Miroslav Klose in 2005/06. Füllkrug scored 31% of all Werder goals (16 out of 51); no other Bundesliga player achieved a higher percentage at his club. He also provided five assists, giving him the third-best record in the league.

After 124 games and 49 goals for Werder Bremen, Niclas Füllkrug moved to Borussia Dortmund on the penultimate day of the 2023 transfer window. "We're looking forward to welcoming a positive guy who will give absolutely everything for BVB," said sporting director Sebastian Kehl of the seasoned pro, who noted: "The yellow wall - it's on my side now. That's really cool. I'm absolutely delighted to be able to play for such a big and emotional club." In the league, he made 27 of his 31 (out of a possible 32) appearances in the starting eleven; in the UEFA Champions League, he made 12 of a possible 13. He scored a total of 15 goals in all competitions (nine of them to give his side the lead); the winning goal in the semi-final first leg against PSG and the goal to put BVB 3-2 up against Atletico Madrid were particular highlights. He set up ten goals (only Brandt notched up more assists at BVB), setting a new personal record for the season. 

Niclas Füllkrug has scored three Bundesliga hat-tricks - for three different clubs: in January 2024 for Borussia Dortmund (against Bochum), in September 2020 for Werder Bremen (against Schalke) and in January 2018 for Hannover 96 (against Mainz). He has converted 14 of his 15 Bundesliga penalties, all of his most recent 13, including every one in a BVB shirt (three out of three).