Karim Bellarabi

Karim Bellarabi (born 8 April 1990) is a German former professional footballer who played as a winger.

Early life Bellarabi was born in West Berlin, to a Moroccan father and a German mother. He grew up in Bremen, where he played youth football for local clubs FC Huchting, Werder Bremen, and FC Oberneuland.

Club career In 2008, Bellarabi joined the under-19 side of Eintracht Braunschweig. He made his senior debut for them during the 2008–09 season, followed by two more appearances during the 2009–10 league campaign. He finally became a regular starter during the 2010–11 3. Liga season and attracted notice due to his performance.

After the season, he left Braunschweig for Bundesliga side Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Due to injury, Bellarabi missed most of the 2012–13 Bundesliga season. In 2013, he returned from Leverkusen to Eintracht Braunschweig, by now playing in the Bundesliga as well, on a one-year loan deal.

Bellarabi returned to Leverkusen at the start of the 2014–15 season. On 23 August 2014, he scored the fastest goal in Bundesliga history, just in 9 seconds, on the opening match of the 2014–15 season, away to Borussia Dortmund, he led the way to a 0–2 win.

On 17 February 2017 Bellarabi scored the 50,000th goal in Bundesliga history.

In July 2018 he collapsed in a pre-season friendly.

On 13 August 2020, he extended his stay at the BayArena until 2023 amid interest from other clubs.

By the end of his career he had scored 37 goals in 241 German top-flight matches.

International career Bellarabi has played youth international football for the German under-20 and under-21 teams. He was called up by the senior team in October 2014.

He made his senior international debut for Germany on 11 October 2014 in a 2–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying defeat away to Poland, playing the full 90 minutes. On 13 June 2015, Bellarabi scored his first international goal in a 7–0 win against Gibraltar. He won 11 caps in total.

Career statistics Club

International goals Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first.

No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition 1. 13 June 2015 Estádio Algarve, Algarve, Portugal 4–0 7–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualification