Kevin Schade spent his formative years in Germany with SV Babelsberg and Energie Cottbus, before heading to the north of the country and entering the academy of SC Freiburg as a 16-year-old in 2018. 18 months later, shortly after he turned 18, he signed his first professional contract with the club.
Schade broke into the Freiburg first team at the start of the 2021/22 campaign and made such an impact that reports circulated of Premier League interest. It took a little while, but that impact materialised midway through 2022/23, when he joined Brentford on loan until the end of the season, with a view to making the move permanent.
“Fresh from an injury, I need time and games to be 100 per cent fit,” he told brentford.com in the Long Read.
“I’m quick and Brentford’s system is to play quick at the top, with deep runners and crosses from the outside. That’s my game. And I can jump high as well. I think the style will fit my game.”
Primarily used from the bench across his first four months in west London, he broke into the starting line-up in April 2023 and was mostly deployed out on the left wing. During those first months at the club, he made his international debut, becoming the first Brentford player to earn a senior cap for Germany.
In June 2023, Brentford announced Schade had signed a five-year contract to join from Freiburg for a club-record fee. He started four of the first six games in all competitions and scored his first goal for the club with a magnificent solo effort in the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace at the Gtech.
All the signs pointed towards that being the time for the German to kickstart his Bees career, yet he suffered an adductor injury during the warm-up against Everton on 23 September, which required surgery, meaning he was sidelined for seven months until April.
He did manage to come off the bench to play in the final six Premier League matches of 2023/24, scoring once in the 5-1 demolition of Luton.
Schade received his first call-up to the senior Germany squad in March 2023 and made his debut against Peru. In the following match, a 3-2 defeat to Belgium, he was introduced as a substitute and provided an assist for Serge Gnabry.
The forward played in every Premier League game during the 2024/25 campaign, during which time he scored 11 goals - three of those came in a home win against Leicester City, as Schade netted a hat-trick and contributed with an assist in a 4-1 win.