A crowd favourite at Freiburg before heading to England to keep goal for English Premier League side Brentford, Mark Flekken is all set for a new challenge back in the Bundesliga with Erik ten Hag’s Bayer Leverkusen. bundesliga.com takes a closer look at the Germany-savvy custodian…
Data correct as of 3 June 2025
Ground stain
Age: 31 (born 13 June 1993)
Club: Bayer Leverkusen
Position: Goalkeeper
Country: Netherlands (8 caps)
Key stats
Flekken hails from Kerkrade, the Netherlands, a town on the border with Germany – near both Maastricht and Aachen. After playing his youth football for local team Roda JCthe young keeper crossed the border to join Alemannia Aachen. He gained experience in 3. Liga, before furthering his development in An Understudy Role at Bundesliga 2 Outfit Greuther Fürth.
His big break would come at Duisburg, with Flekken helping them finish top of 3. Liga in 2017 with his 15 clean sheets in 37 league matches. The following campaign, he recorded nine shut-outs in 31 Bundesliga 2 outings as the Zebras finished seventh.
Freiburg duly swooped, initially signing Flekken as a back-up for Alexander Schwolow. An elbow injury derailed his 2019/20 season, but he was involved in the final three matches of 2020/21, a 2-2 draw against record champions Bayern Munich among them.
Following Schwolow’s transfer to Hertha Berlin, Flekken became Freiburg’s undisputed No.1. He recorded 10 clean sheets in 2021/22 As Freiburg went all the way to the DFB Cup final and finished the Bundesliga in sixth and qualified for the UEFA Europa League. His 112 saves were bettered only by five other goalies in the league. It was no surprise that he was selected as the goalkeeper in the 2021/22 Bundesliga team of the season in a vote from fellow professionals run by the VDV footballers’ union.
Flekken’s figures for 2022/23 were even more impressive – with 12 clean sheets and another 112 saves in his first 32 appearances. It all led to a move to English Premier League outfit Brentford, where the keeper’s reputation grew further still as he missed just two top-flight games across two campaigns for the Bees, before signing a three-year deal with Leverkusen in June 2025.
A maiden senior international call-up came in October 2021 and Flekken made four appearances for the Netherlands in the course of 2022. That tally has since increased to eight games, with the 6’4″ shot stopper even called up to the Oranje squad for UEFA Euro 2024.
Plays a bit like: Edwin van der Sar
It’s pretty clear that Flekken paid partcicularly close attention to legendary Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar in his youth. The new Bayer 04 stopper is calmness personified and boasts an excellent reading of the game and razor-sharp reflexes.
Did you know?
Remember that annoying FIFA glitch where goalkeepers would get stuck in the net? In his Duisburg days, Flekken inadvertently re-enacted the in-game fault in a real live match.
Completely unaware his side had just had a goal ruled out, he went to take a sip from the water bottle placed inside his goal. The next minute, with celebratory music still blaring out, Stefan Kutschke received a quick free-kick and scored with Flekken seemingly glued to the spot behind his goal-line.
“In future games, I won’t put my bottle in the goal,” Flekken joked at full-time, having atoned with a penalty save from Kutschke in a 2-1 win.
What they’re saying
“Mark exudes an impressive physical presence, and in footballing terms he has certainly been one of the best keepers in the Premier League over the past two years,” – Leverkusen Sporting Director Simon Rolfes
“He’s done good things in the Bundesliga, and I want to see him close up to get a better understanding of his qualities.” – Louis Van Gaal, then Netherlands coach, after calling up Flekken for 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Latvia and Gibraltar
“It was clear that Flekki would one day be in net for us. He is a really good goalkeeper; he exudes an excellent presence, is a good guy, and has tons of potential.” – ex-Freiburg coach Christian Streich
