A very special player is leaving the club.
Marcel Halstenberg is joining second-division side Hannover 96 after eight years at RB Leipzig.
He is now returning home and will be playing for the club whose academy he was in and then that he played for from 1999 until 2011.
From the 2. Bundesliga to the UEFA Champions League and two DFB-Pokal titles, it has been an amazing adventure together, “Halste”.
Eight years together. Eight years with Halstenberg – 23 on the back of a RBL shirt. We wish you all the best with this personal decision for you and your family.
Marcel Halstenberg
- “I am very thankful to both clubs for enabling this transfer to happen. This step is anything but easy for me to make. Leipzig has been my second home for eight years and RB Leipzig has become my second family. But, I have made this decision very consciously together with my family in order to be back home on a permanent basis in the future. The loss of my parents has shown me that there are much more important things than football and how important time together is. I also had unbelievable support from the club in this difficult phase.
I leave with a lot of satisfaction and incredible amount gratitude. We have experienced and achieved so much together in these eight years – it’s been unbelievable! These two cup wins are now the perfect ending. All I can say a massive thank you to everyone, especially our fans, and I will obviously always look back on this time fondly. This time at RB Leipzig was the most important of my career, and the city and the club will remain in my heart forever.”
Max Eberl
- “Marcel Halstenberg is an unbelievably well-respected player at RB Leipzig. He joined the club in the 2. Bundesliga in 2015 and along with the club made it to the Bundesliga, the Champions League, became a Germany international and last of all won the Pokal twice. To stay at one club for eight years is a statement, and shows how connected “Halste” and RB Leipzig are.
Obviously, we would have really liked to have kept him here, but in the end we agreed to his wish and also accommodated Hannover so that he could move back home. After a difficult time in their personal lives, we wish Marcel and his family all the best and a great time together as a player in Hannover. “Halste” will always be part of the RB Leipzig family because he helped to decisively shape the club in a key phase and over a period of eight years. All of us here at RB Leipzig can respectfully only say a huge thank you for that.”
This time at RB Leipzig was the most important of my career, and the city and the club will remain in my heart forever.
Marcel Halstenberg’s journey at RB Leipzig
Marcel Halstenberg joined RB Leipzig from FC St. Pauli in August 2015 and immediately established himself as a key starter at left-back. At the end of the season, “Halste” and RB Leipzig gained promotion to the Bundesliga, and he provided a crucial assist with a freekick to make it 2-0 in the game against Karlsruher SC, which sealed promotion.
RBL’s number 23 also played a key role in his first season in the Bundesliga, helping the team finish runners-up and to qualify for the Champions League, with him then making his Champions League debut on 13th September 2017 against AS Monaco.
After a cruciate ligament injury in January 2018, the defender was out for nine months, however he quickly fought his way back to full-fitness and regained his starting spot. One of his most important goals was on 2nd April 2019, where he scored a penalty in additional time at the end of extra time in order to secure a 2-1 win and passage into the DFB-Pokal semi-finals.
From August 2021 until February 2022, he was out due to a capsule injury which once again kept him out for a number of months before he made an emotional comeback in the DFB-Pokal game against Hannover 96. It was even more emotional when he scored on his first start back in the Bundesliga since injury on 10th April 2022 against Hoffenheim, which he devoted to his parents who had recently passed away.
“Halste” finally had an injury free second half of the season and won the DFB-Pokal in May. In his final season at RBL, he played in 40 games, captaining the team for the first time on 11th February 2023 against Union Berlin.
In June, “Halste” won the DFB-Pokal for the second season in a row following a strong performance in the 2-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Marcel Halstenberg at RBL in numbers
- 240 games (currently the sixth-most in RBL history)
- 16 goals
- 29 assists
- With 43 goal contributions, he is currently the defender with the most goal contributions for RB Leipzig since 2009
Successes
- Promotion to the Bundesliga 2016
- In the starting eleven for RBL’s first-ever Bundesliga game against Hoffenheim
- Five-time qualification for the UEFA Champions League
- Champions League semi-finalist 2020
- Europa League semi-finalist 2022
- Four-time DFB-Pokal finalist
- DFB-Pokal winner 2022 and 2023