Servus and welcome to FC Bayern and Munich, Jonathan Tah! The German record champions have signed the 29-year-old defender from Bayer 04 Leverkusen on a four-year contract through to 2029. In our profile we introduce you to the German international in more detail and reveal what all Bayern fans can now look forward to.
It was a pleasant August day in summer 2013, when a 17-year-old centre-back with a shy look and broad shoulders stepped onto the big stage for the first time. Jonathan Tah, recently promoted from the youth academy at Hamburger SV, was brought on for Heiko Westermann in the 83rd minute – and made club history in the first round of the DFB Cup as HSV’s youngest player in the Bundesliga era. Still, no one could foresee that this cool-headed boy would move to FC Bayern – the best in the business – over a decade later as a seasoned international and double winner. From the Hamburg docks via Düsseldorf and Leverkusen – now all the way to Säbener Straße.
Tah’s strengths
In Tah, the Bavarians are gaining a robust specialist defender with international experience. The 1.95-metre-tall giant stands out on the field with strong tackling and his leadership. The model athlete embodies reliability, consistency, vision and game intelligence, while exuding calmness and authority. The enforcer can act as a tower of strength in the FCB defence in the coming years, and despite his physique he’s extremely agile and quick. Because he uses his body well, he rarely commits fouls and is a thoroughly fair sportsman on and off the pitch. He was shown just 48 yellow cards in 10 seasons with Bayer 04 – less than five a season on average. As well as that, he’s not injury-prone. His only lengthy spell on the sidelines in a decade at Leverkusen came in the 2016/17 season, when a muscle strain sidelined him for two and a half months.
Here’s the story of Tah’s career so far:
Beginnings in Hamburg
Jonathan Glao Tah – nickname “Jona” – was born in Hamburg on 11 February 1996, where he also soon found his feet as a footballer. He started at the age of four at local club Altona 93, before eventually joining Hamburger SV in summer 2009 after a spell at SC Concordia. Tah initially lived in the academy at the traditional club and completed his advanced technical college certificate in parallel with his football education. The management at HSV quickly identified the 17-year-old’s great talent and included Tah in the first-team squad for the 2013/14 season. But his career path would take the defender away from the far north.
Matured in Rhineland
Because Tah didn’t feature regularly under HSV coach Mirko Slomka, he was loaned out to second-tier club Fortuna Düsseldorf for the 2014/15 campaign. Of course, the brawny defender couldn’t have known back then that he wouldn’t leave the Rhineland for another 11 years – and for a club even further south… But taking things in sequence: Tah quickly became a key player for Fortuna and moved on to better things after 23 appearances in all competitions. Following the European U19 Championship in 2015, he moved 27 kilometres south of Düsseldorf to Bayer 04 Leverkusen. The now 19-year-old signed a five-year contract with the works club and was awarded the gold Fritz Walter Medal in the same year as Germany’s best under-19 player.
Double winner and vice-captain
Tah played for Leverkusen for 10 years in all, making 402 appearances in all competitions and registering 18 goals and 13 assists. The German played in 32 Champions League games during his 10 seasons under the Bayer Cross: his first on 16 September 2015 against BATE Borisov and his last against none other than FC Bayern in the round of 16 second leg on 11 March 2025. Tah enjoyed his biggest successes in Leverkusen’s historic 2023/24 season with the Bundesliga and DFB Cup double. He also lifted the German Supercup with ex-Bayern player Xabi Alonso’s team last summer. Tah led the Werkself as captain in recent years when goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecky wasn’t in the starting line-up.
Starter at home Euro
Having represented Germany at various youth levels – he captained the U17s, U18s, U19s and U21s (at the 2019 Euro) – he made his senior international debut on 26 March 2016 in a friendly against England, coming on as a substitute for former Bayern player Mats Hummels at Berlin’s Olympiastadion. Tah gained his first tournament experience at senior level in 2016 with the defending world champions at the European Championship in France, although the Hamburg native didn’t play in the tournament as Germany were knocked out by the hosts in the semi-finals.
Tah was also included in the provisional squad for the 2018 World Cup but wasn’t selected in Joachim Löw’s final squad. He therefore has the chance to take part in his first World Cup as a Bayern player in summer 2026 in Canada, Mexico and USA. Under current Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann, Tah is a regular starter, including at the home Euro 2024 in Germany, where the centre-back started four out of five matches. He only missed the last-16 clash against Denmark because of suspension. To date he’s won 35 caps for the DFB Team.
Jona the man
As the son of an Ivorian father and German mother, Tah also speaks French along with German and English. The 29-year-old likes to listen to French rap music before training, although he prefers to start the day more calmly: he often meditates in the morning and then does a ‘daily journal’, where he writes down his goals and thoughts for the day. Coffee is a firm favourite in the Tah household too, He’s got into latte art – a technique used to create beautiful patterns and decorations on the surface of coffee. Tah, who visited the Ivory Coast – his father’s country of birth – before moving to Munich in May, also enjoys cooking, is married and switches off in his private life by walking his dog and reading.
The smart defender also believes in continually educating himself, for example in the areas of personality development and communication skills. On his Instagram profile he writes about himself: “Dedicated, ambitious and open-minded person, who strives to be the best version of themselves.” One topic that is particularly close to Tah's heart is his commitment to social and socio-political projects. Whether for children suffering from cancer as an ambassador for the DFB Foundation Egidius Braun, or for a better drinking water supply worldwide with the aid organisation World Vision, the German is involved in numerous charitable causes.
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