Philipp Schulze

Philipp Schulze has spent the opening weeks of the 2026/27 season adjusting to a very different level from the one he played at a few months earlier. Since joining Górnik Zabrze he has made nine appearances: six in the Ekstraklasa, two in the UEFA Champions League and one in the Super Cup. That comes to 810 minutes.

The route to Zabrze ran through German football's lower divisions. Schulze grew up in Hannover and started at TSV Luthe, where he stayed until 2013. He then spent four years at Hannover 96 and moved on to VfL Wolfsburg in 2017. He was still at Wolfsburg when he joined the senior setup in 2021, and he had played for Germany at U17 and U18 level.

Wolfsburg's first team did not open up for him, so his senior career developed elsewhere. In January 2024 he moved to Hallescher FC and stayed until June 2025. That period brought his first honour, the Regional Cup Sachsen-Anhalt in 2023/24. When his Wolfsburg contract ran out, he signed for SC Verl on a permanent basis on 1 July 2025. He played in the 3. Liga there and won the Regional Cup Westfalen in 2025/26.

Górnik signed him from Verl on 1 July 2026. He has since gone from a third-tier club to European qualifying fixtures within a single summer.