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Signings, standout players and more: key news from the 2025/26 Bundesliga

The Bundesliga kicks off this Friday (21) with another edition, featuring a match between Bayern Munich and Leipzig at the Allianz Arena.

The new season brings good news both on and off the field.

And while the title race has a clear favorite, the other table battles promise a highly balanced competition.

OneFootball will help you prepare for the championship, highlighting some of the main reasons to keep an eye on the German elite.

Most expensive signings

The arrival of Colombian Luis Díaz tops the list by a wide margin.

We point out here all the arrivals that cost more than 20 million euros.

The list is based on information from Transfermarkt and the quoted values are in Euros.

Luis Díaz (forward 🇨🇴): Liverpool ➡️ Bayern Munich for 70 million

Jarrell Quansah (defender 🇬🇧): Liverpool ➡️ Bayer Leverkusen for 35 million

Malik Tillman (midfielder 🇺🇸): PSV ➡️ Bayer Leverkusen for 35 million

Jobe Bellingham (midfielder 🇺🇸): Sunderland ➡️ Borussia Dortmund for 30.5 million

Loic Badé (defender 🇫🇷): Sevilla ➡️ Bayer Leverkusen for 25 million

Ritsu Doan (forward 🇯🇵): Freiburg ➡️ Eintracht Frankfurt for 21 million

Jonathan Burkardt (forward 🇩🇪): Mainz ➡️ Eintracht Frankfurt for 21 million

Most expensive sales

Liverpool appears as the protagonist again, involved in the two most expensive transfers.

We list here all the arrivals that cost more than 20 million euros.

The list is based on information from Transfermarkt and the quoted values are in Euros.

Florian Wirtz (midfielder 🇩🇪): Bayer Leverkusen ➡️ Liverpool for 125 million

Hugo Ekitiké (forward 🇫🇷): Eintracht Frankfurt ➡️ Liverpool for 95 million

Benjamin Sesko (forward 🇸🇮): Leipzig ➡️ Manchester United for 76.5 million

Jamie Gittens (forward 🇬🇧): Borussia Dortmund ➡️ Chelsea for 56 million

Jeremie Frimpomg (right-back 🇳🇱): Bayer Leverkusen ➡️ Liverpool for 40 million

Mathys Tel (forward 🇫🇷): Bayern Munich ➡️ Tottenham for 35 million

Enzo Millot (midfielder 🇫🇷): Stuttgart ➡️ Al-Ahli for 28 million

Kingsley Coman (forward 🇫🇷): Bayern Munich ➡️ Al-Nassr for 25 million

Ritsu Doan (forward 🇯🇵): Freiburg ➡️ Eintracht Frankfurt for 21 million

Jonathan Burkardt (forward 🇩🇪): Mainz ➡️ Eintracht Frankfurt for 21 million

Amine Adli (forward 🇲🇦): Bayer Leverkusen ➡️ Bournemouth for 21 million

Super Bavarian attack

The offensive sector was the highlight of Bayern Munich last season, the first with Vincent Kompany in charge of the team.

The team scored an incredible 99 goals in the 34 rounds of the Bundesliga.

In the last phase of the Champions League, it was only behind Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund in this aspect.

And now Luis Díaz arrives to add another heavy option to the squad.

The problem is that the squad also lost a lot numerically with the departures of Kingsley Coman, Leroy Sané and Thomas Müller.

In addition, Jamal Musiala will miss a good part of the season due to an injury suffered in the Club World Cup.

Is the current squad enough to compete not only for the Bundesliga, but also for the European title?

Restructuring in Leverkusen

Champion in 2024, Bayer Leverkusen is undergoing a complete overhaul in this window.

Several key pieces from the historic campaign that led to the Bundesliga title have left the club, including coach Xabi Alonso.

See below the main players who left Leverkusen:

Florian Wirtz ➡️ Liverpool

Jeremie Frimpong ➡️ Liverpool

Granit Xhaka ➡️ Sunderland

Jonathan Tah ➡️ Bayern Munich

Lukas Hradecky ➡️ Monaco

Erik ten Hag arrives as a replacement and will have the difficult task of leading this restructuring.

What's Dortmund's identity?

The market for Borussia Dortmund was less busy than in other recent seasons.

Niko Kovac continues the work started at the beginning of 2025 needing to show the true identity of his team.

Dortmund had an incredible final stretch of the Bundesliga last season, winning seven of the last eight rounds.

But the participation in the Club World Cup was not encouraging.

Can the team stay in the Bundesliga's top 4 without major scares this time?

Giants are back

The two teams that moved up from the second to the first division are old acquaintances of the German fan.

Hamburg is back after seven seasons of nightmare in the 2. Bundesliga.

The club in the north of Germany, Champions League champion in 1981, was accompanied in the promotion by Cologne, the first champion in the history of the Bundesliga.

In addition to tradition, the two carry large fan bases and count on them to stay in the elite.

Brazilians arriving

The transfer window is still open, but we already know that two Brazilians will be new in the 2025/26 Bundesliga.

The forward Rômulo was hired by Leipzig after a good season with Göztepe, from Turkey.

Revealed by Athletico, he now has the chance to fill the gap left by Benjamin Sesko, who was sold to Manchester United.

At Wolfsburg, the Brazilian reinforcement was Vinícius Souza, bought from Sheffield United.

Ex-Flamengo, he was already a starter in the new team in the season opener, for the German Cup.

Check below all the Brazilians in the Bundesliga squads so far:

Rômulo: forward | Leipzig | 23 years old

Vinícius Souza: defensive midfielder | Wolfsburg | 26 years old

Yan Couto: right-back | Borussia Dortmund | 23 years old

Arthur: right-back | Bayer Leverkusen | 22 years old

Kauã Santos: goalkeeper | Eintracht Frankfurt | 22 years old

Rogério: left-back | Wolfsburg | 27 years old

Bernardo: defender | Hoffenheim | 30 years old

Leo Scienza: midfielder | Heidenheim | 26 years old

Semiautomatic offside

The refereeing will have a great 'reinforcement' for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season.

The technology of semiautomatic offside will be used in all matches of the championship.

The tool has already been used in the German second division, which started in early August.

The other novelty for refereeing is that all decisions taken with the help of VAR will be announced by the referee through the stadium's loudspeakers.

This feature has already been used in some games from the second half of last season, but will be available in all matches.