From Regional Leagues to the Bundesliga: The Remarkable Journey of Wolfsburg’s Kevin Behrens

It was not foreseeable for a long time that Wolfsburg’s Kevin Behrens would one day play at the highest level. He seemed to be steering his career into a dead end and often got in his own way.

Kevin Behrens had a rocky path before he reached professional football. IMAGO/regios24

It was last September, then Union striker Kevin Behrens was standing in the middle of the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu dueling with Real Madrid when he had a brief, fleeting moment to himself at the end of the first half. So, he says, he “just looked around the stadium and thought: Wow, where am I?” Just for a short while, then it was time to stop the Royals again.

The fact that this ultimately didn’t work for the entirety of the game – Jude Bellingham famously scored the 1-0 winning goal for Real shortly before the end – doesn’t change the fact that this guest appearance in Madrid is one of Behrens’ greatest career highlights. It marked the current highlight of a career that led the current VfL Wolfsburg attacker into the Bundesliga late on.

I’ve been a real asshole at times.

Kevin Behrens im kicker-Interview

At Werder Bremen, Behrens once didn’t make it past the 3rd team, after which he played in the regional league for years. A complicated time. “I was dissatisfied with myself, with my footballing life,” reports Behrens in an interview with kicker. He lived out this dissatisfaction on the pitch – in the game, in training. “I have to say, I’ve been a real asshole at times.”

Looking back, he admits that “I often blocked my way to the top myself. I saw a few red cards, sometimes it was an act of violence, sometimes it was a serious foul,” says Behrens and explains: “I had the reputation of being unteachable and The untrainable guy, the guy who only causes trouble. And to be honest: the people were right.”

Red and white food as a hello-wake effect

When did the change in thinking occur? In 2015, after he was kicked out of Rot-Weiss Essen after only six months. From this point on, Behrens worked his way up, arrived in the 2nd division in 2018 and celebrated his Bundesliga debut in August 2021 at the age of 30. The attacker is now 33 and has played 81 Bundesliga games and one international match.

In the first major interview since his departure from Union Berlin, Behrens looks at his special career and his rocky path to the top. Read what he has to say about disappointments, dreams, hard work and his move to VfL in Monday’s edition of kicker – also available here as an eMagazine from 10 p.m.

2024-03-24 17:52:20
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