Emmanuel Thomas, with DPA, Thursday, April 13, 2023
WOLFSBURG – Former captain Josuha Guilavogui will leave VfL Wolfsburg this summer after nine years with the team, the Bundesliga club said on Thursday.
His contract expires in summer and won’t be extended. It’s unclear where Guilavogui will play next, but Wolfsburg said they are already in talks about a different role in future after the end of his professional career.
“Josh is the kind of player whose value cannot be measured by numbers alone,” Wolfsburg managing director Marcel Schäfer said.
“We will miss him as a footballer, as a person and also as a cheerful character in the dressing room. At the same time, of course, we respect his wish to take on a new challenge and to get more playing time than he has had of late,” Schäfer added.
Guilavogui joined Wolfsburg in 2014 from Atletico Madrid and is the longest-serving player in the first team squad after Maximilian Arnold. With the club, he won the German Cup in his first season and the German Supercup in 2015.
“I will leave Wolfsburg with a smile on my face and until then I’ll enjoy every day that I’m still here,” the midfielder said. “My head is full of memories and as the saying goes: our story book will always stay open, we’re just turning a page.”
Last weekend he became only the fifth player in history to play his 200th Bundesliga game for Wolfsburg, following on from Arnold, Schäfer, Diego Benaglio and Koen Casteels.