Tim-Henry Handwerker

Tim-Henry Handwerker's path to Bundesliga football ran through two of German football's biggest academies before he ever kicked a ball in senior competition. He came up through Bayer Leverkusen's youth system, joining as a boy and staying until 2017, then made the step up to 1. FC Köln, where he broke into the first team and made his Bundesliga debut.

A loan to FC Groningen in the Netherlands followed in 2018, giving him experience outside Germany before his career took a turn toward the lower half of the Bundesliga table. In July 2019, 1. FC Nürnberg signed him for a fee of €300,000. During that spell he was sent out on loan again, this time to FC Utrecht in January 2024; the move included a buy option that Utrecht did not take up after Handwerker sustained a knee injury.

His contract situation at Nürnberg resolved itself with a free transfer to SSV Jahn Regensburg in January 2025, a stay that lasted only a matter of months before he moved on again, joining Arminia Bielefeld on a free transfer in June 2025.

Handwerker's representative honours have so far stopped short of the senior Germany side. He was capped twice for the U19s in 2016 and 2017, then stepped up to the U21s, for whom he played seven times between 2019 and 2020. A left-back by trade, he now wears the number 29 shirt at Arminia Bielefeld.