Bundesliga 2026-27: Favourites, Transfers and Preview

The Bundesliga 2026-27 season kicks off on Friday 28 August 2026 and ends on 22 May 2027. It is the 64th edition of the German championship and it arrives with a shifted calendar because of the 2026 World Cup, which pushed the opening night back by almost a month. The first fixture could hardly be more symbolic: Bayern Munich against VfB Stuttgart, an exact rerun of the DFB-Pokal final the Bavarians won 3-0 in Berlin three months earlier.

After a 2025-26 campaign of total domination, the question is not really whether Bayern will win again, but how early they will wrap it up and who will fight for the European places behind them. Here is everything confirmed as of 22 July 2026, fact by fact: defending champion, promoted and relegated clubs, official transfers, coaching changes and the outright odds. Anything that is still a rumour is flagged as a rumour.

The defending champion: a record-breaking Bayern

Bayern Munich won the 2025-26 Bundesliga with 89 points from 28 wins, 5 draws and a single defeat in 34 matchdays. They finished 16 points clear of runners-up Borussia Dortmund on 73 and posted a goal difference of plus 86, scoring 122 and conceding 36. Those 122 goals are an outright league record: the club broke its own historic mark of 101, set back in 1971-72, with five matchdays still to play.

The title was mathematically secured on 19 April 2026 with four rounds to spare, after a 4-2 win over Stuttgart. It was the club's 34th Bundesliga crown. In May they completed the domestic double by beating Stuttgart again, 3-0 in the DFB-Pokal final at Berlin's Olympiastadion, thanks to a perfect second-half hat-trick from Harry Kane: a 21st German Cup for Bayern and a 14th double in their history.

Kane finished the league season on 36 goals, a third consecutive Torjägerkanone, and collected the European Golden Shoe. Deniz Undav (Stuttgart, 19) and Serhou Guirassy (Dortmund, 17) trailed a long way behind. RB Leipzig finished third on 65 points and Stuttgart fourth on 62, taking the remaining Champions League places alongside Bayern and Dortmund.

"89 points, 122 goals and one defeat in 34 matchdays: Bayern in 2025-26 did not win the league, they erased it."

Bundesliga 2026-27 favourites

Given that precedent, bookmakers make Bayern overwhelming favourites to retain the Meisterschale, quoting them around -600 in American odds, well below even money. Borussia Dortmund sit second in the market at roughly 7/1, with RB Leipzig next and Bayer Leverkusen widely tipped as the dark horse if their new coaching staff settles quickly.

The reasoning is simple. Vincent Kompany has extended until 2029 and keeps the title-winning core, to which he has added two internationals in peak form. Niko Kovač's Dortmund were the only side to stay in the fight beyond the winter break, but they have lost attacking depth. And both Martín Demichelis at Leipzig and Carles Martínez at Leverkusen are starting brand-new projects, with everything that implies in a league that waits for nobody.

Promoted and relegated: who is in and who is out

The 2025-26 promotion race produced three very different stories. Schalke 04 won the 2. Bundesliga title and return to the top flight after three years away. SV Elversberg pulled off the most romantic promotion of the year: on 17 May 2026, on the final matchday, a club from Spiesen-Elversberg, a Saarland municipality of barely 13,000 people, became the 59th different team in Bundesliga history. SC Paderborn 07 took the third ticket through the promotion play-off.

• Promoted: FC Schalke 04 (2. Bundesliga champions), SV Elversberg (automatic promotion and a first-ever top-flight campaign) and SC Paderborn 07 (via the play-off).
• Relegated: VfL Wolfsburg (16th on 29 points, beaten by Paderborn in the play-off), 1. FC Heidenheim (17th, 26 points) and FC St. Pauli (18th, 26 points).
• Wolfsburg drop into the 2. Bundesliga for the first time since 1997, a historic blow for the Volkswagen club.
• Elversberg will make their Bundesliga debut at home against Bayer Leverkusen on matchday one.
• The 18 clubs in 2026-27: Bayern, Dortmund, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Hoffenheim, Leverkusen, Freiburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, Augsburg, Mainz, Union Berlin, Mönchengladbach, Hamburger SV, Cologne, Werder Bremen, Schalke, Elversberg and Paderborn.

Confirmed summer 2026 transfers

This is where separating fact from noise matters: only officially announced deals are listed below. Bayern did their heavy lifting early, closing two significant signings in July, while Leverkusen became the busiest club in the league in both directions.

• Bayern Munich: in come Nathaniel Brown (Eintracht Frankfurt, contract until 2031) and Ismael Saibari (PSV Eindhoven, contract until 2031). Out go Alexander Nübel (Besiktas), Leon Goretzka and Raphaël Guerreiro (contracts expired).
• Bayer Leverkusen: in come Afonso Moreira (Lyon), Kennet Eichhorn (Hertha BSC) and Kerim Alajbegovic (Salzburg). Out go Piero Hincapié (Arsenal) and Álex Grimaldo (Atlético Madrid).
• Borussia Dortmund: in comes Joane Gadou (RB Salzburg). Out go Karim Adeyemi (Barcelona) and Julian Brandt (contract expired), while Niklas Süle retired from professional football.
• RB Leipzig: in comes Rocco Reitz, the Mönchengladbach captain, on a deal until 2031. Out go Loïs Openda (Juventus) and Xaver Schlager (Nottingham Forest).
• VfB Stuttgart: in come Grischa Prömel (Hoffenheim) and Bilal El Khannouss, whose Leicester loan was made permanent.
• Eintracht Frankfurt: in come Noel Aseko (Bayern) and Malik Pimpong (Midtjylland), plus Elye Wahi returning from his loan at Nice.
• Schalke 04: back in the top flight with Junior Adamu (Freiburg), free agent Maximilian Wöber and Robin Gosens on loan from Fiorentina.
• Elversberg and Paderborn: both lean on young talent from bigger clubs, with Maurice Krattenmacher (Bayern) and Cole Campbell (Dortmund) heading to the Saarland newcomers.

On Harry Kane, a note of caution. His summer 2026 release clause has expired and his contract runs to 2027. Much of the German press treats an extension as close to done, but as of 22 July 2026 there is no official club announcement, so it belongs in the rumour column rather than the confirmed one.

Confirmed coaching changes

Four dugouts have changed hands since last season, and three of them belong to clubs with European ambitions. These are the moves most likely to reshuffle the chasing pack.

• RB Leipzig: Martín Demichelis replaces Ole Werner, confirmed on 22 June 2026.
• Bayer Leverkusen: Carles Martínez Novell takes over from Kasper Hjulmand, confirmed on 4 June 2026.
• Eintracht Frankfurt: Adi Hütter returns to the club in place of Albert Riera, confirmed on 31 May 2026.
• Union Berlin: Mauro Lustrinelli succeeds Marie-Louise Eta with effect from 1 July 2026.

The heavyweights stay put: Vincent Kompany remains at Bayern under contract until 2029, Niko Kovač continues at Dortmund and Sebastian Hoeneß at Stuttgart. Also staying are Christian Ilzer at Hoffenheim, who signed an extension after the club's best recent season, Julian Schuster at Freiburg, Urs Fischer at Mainz, Eugen Polanski at Mönchengladbach, Merlin Polzin at Hamburger SV, Daniel Thioune at Werder Bremen, Miron Muslic at Schalke, Vincent Wagner at Elversberg and Ralf Kettemann at Paderborn.

Surprise packages and teams to watch

Christian Ilzer's Hoffenheim were the great overachievers of 2025-26: fifth on 61 points, the second-highest tally in club history, with 65 goals scored and wins over Dortmund, Leipzig and Leverkusen in the same campaign. They will play in the Europa League and have added Patrick Wimmer out wide, though they lose Grischa Prömel and Bazoumana Touré.

Eintracht Frankfurt are the opposite case: eighth on 44 points, well short of their recent standards, having sold Nathaniel Brown to Bayern and brought back Adi Hütter, the coach who took them into Europe first time around. This is the classic side that could climb four places or drop four without anyone being shocked.

Then there is the novelty factor. Elversberg arrive as the bookmakers' number one relegation pick, yet their possession football already troubled half of the 2. Bundesliga; Schalke return with a Veltins-Arena atmosphere few grounds in Europe can match; and Paderborn, play-off survivors, will have to manufacture points where nobody expects them. At the bottom, keep an eye on Cologne and Werder Bremen too, who both survived on just 32 points.

"Elversberg, a village of 13,000 people, will play in the Bundesliga. That is precisely why German football keeps pulling you back in."

Prediction and how the fixture list opens

The reasonable call, going on the data, is another Bayern title, probably by a smaller margin than the 16 points of 2025-26 but with the same air of inevitability. For the rest of the top four we would back Dortmund and Leipzig, with Stuttgart, Leverkusen and Hoffenheim scrapping over the last Champions League ticket. At the other end, Elversberg and Paderborn start as relegation favourites, with Schalke under pressure to prove their promotion was no fluke.

The schedule sets the tone immediately. Matchday one opens on Friday 28 August at 20:30 CEST with Bayern against Stuttgart, continues on Saturday 29 with Union Berlin against Eintracht Frankfurt (15:30) and Borussia Dortmund against Hamburger SV (18:30), and features Elversberg's historic home debut against Leverkusen. The season closes on 22 May 2027.

And what if the script breaks? That is exactly what you can find out on Fut Simulator: simulate the full Bundesliga 2026/27 matchday by matchday, or pick individual games such as that opening Bayern against Stuttgart, and see how often the champion repeats, whether Dortmund close the gap, or whether Elversberg survive their first year in the elite. Simulate the Bundesliga 2026/27 on Fut Simulator and draw your own conclusions.