Bundesliga Transfers: Loic Bade Joins Claudio Echeverri At Bayer Leverkusen

Loic Bade has continued the recruitment drive at Bayer Leverkusen ahead of the 2025-26 Bundesliga season.

The French defender has signed a five-year deal with the Bundesliga club after a reported €29m move from Sevilla.

Following his transfer from Rennes in January 2023, a loan move which became permanent, Bade won 63.3% of his tackles and 62.3% of his duels in 79 LaLiga appearances for Sevilla.

The 25-year-old, who has also represented Lens and Le Havre in his professional career, also played the full 90 minutes in France’s Nations League third-place playoff win over Germany earlier this year.

"The Bundesliga and German football really appeal to me. Bayer Leverkusen have earned great recognition abroad in recent years," Bade told Leverkusen's official website.

"I've seen them a lot on TV, above all in European games. The stadium and the Leverkusen fans were brilliant. It will be great fun to battle for a trophy for Bayer 04 with that background."

Bade was the second Leverkusen signing that was announced on Thursday, with Claudio Echeverri also joining Erik ten Hag’s side, while Amine Adli left the club to join Premier League side Bournemouth.

Bade is expected to battle fellow summer signing Jarell Quansah for a starting position following the exit of Jonathan Tah earlier in the window.

Managing sporting director Simon Rolfes believes the addition of Bade makes Leverkusen’s defence "competitive at the highest level".

"In Loic Bade we have signed a young but very experienced central defender for Bayer 04," said Rolfes.

"He's used to playing against absolutely world-class strikers in La Liga in Spain.

"Loic is physically uncompromising and can read the game, an absolute addition to strengthening our defence. We are competitive at the highest level with this defence."