Players who played for both Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen | OneFootball

Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen meet in the UEFA Champions League tonight with a place in the competition’s quarter-finals at stake.

A 1-1 draw in Germany has left the tie in the balance, ahead of Tuesday’s reunion at the Emirates.

Ahead of the encounter, we’ve remembered four players who played for both clubs.

Five who played for both: Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen

Bernd Leno

Bayer Leverkusen spotted something in Bernd Leno after signing the youngster from Stuttgart’s second side in 2011, with the goalkeeper thrust into the side as a teenager.

He became the youngest German goalkeeper to feature in the Champions League and cemented himself as the club’s number one.

Leno made 304 appearances for Leverkusen before a £22.5m move to Arsenal in 2018. After replacing Petr Cech as first-choice goakeeper, he helped the Gunners to the Europa League final during his debut season.

Leno was ousted from the side following the signing of Aaron Ramsdale in 2021 and joined Fulham a year later in a cut-price £8m deal.

Granit Xhaka

Arsenal signed Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchegladbach for £30m after the midfielder had made his mark on the Bundesliga.

The Swiss international’s time in North London was a rollercoaster ride, with high moments punctuated by moments of ill-discipline and a memorable fallout with the club’s fans in 2019, after which he was stripped of the captaincy. Xhaka made almost 300 appearances for Arsenal and twice won the FA Cup, before signing for Leverkusen in 2023.

His two seasons at the BayArena saw Xhaka earn back-to-back inclusions in the Bundesliga Team of the Season, the first for his role in Leverkusen’s first-ever title success. Xhaka was an integral part of the team that won the Bundesliga without losing a game.

He returned to the Premier League with Sunderland in 2025.

Kai Havertz

A top talent during his initial emergence at Leverkusen, Kai Havertz broke several records with the German team. He became club’s youngest-ever debutant and goalscorer in the Bundesliga, during a rapid rise to prominence.

Havertz hit a new level in 2018-19 when he scored 17 goals in the Bundesliga, part of an overall record of 46 in 150 games for Leverkusen.

Chelsea broke the bank to sign Havertz in a £71m deal and he won the Champions League and Club World Cup with the Blues across three seasons, scoring the decisive goal in both finals, before a cross-capital switch to Arsenal.

At Arsenal, he’s hit 32 goals in 99 games and could bring up the century against his former side.

Piero Hincapié

The most recent addition to this list, Piero Hincapie left Leverkusen for Arsenal last summer. An initial loan deal will be made permanent at the end of the campaign, with the defender having become an important part of Mikel Arteta’s group.

Hincapie joined Leverkusen from Talleres, having developed at the talent factory that is Independiente del Valle.

Part of a Golden Generation of Ecuadorian talent, he won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal with Leverkusen in 2023-24 and will feature at this summer’s World Cup for the national team.

Read – The 10 youngest goalscorers in Premier League history

See more – Leverkusen aim to add Arsenal to impressive record against English opponents

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