Patrick Helmes hasn't always had it easy, but neither serious injury nor any other difficulties have managed to dampen the spirits of the good-humoured attacker from Cologne.

Professional and adamant, he has always hit back. It is of course to his great advantage that his unbelievable shooting power makes him the personified goal-getter. All at VfL Wolfsburg and the club's fans are eager to see Patrick Helmes make his return.

Early career
As a youth player, Helmes was active in local clubs in Freudenberg, Westphalia and Siegen. He joined 1. FC Köln in 1997, at the age of 13. However, he was regarded as too unstable and sent away in 2000. In the 2004–05 season, he scored 21 goals for his team in the third division, which made him top scorer of the league, helping his team to promotion to the second division.

FC Köln
He then joined his old club Köln again, where he made his Bundesliga debut in 2005 and scored his first goal in his second match, against rivals Bayer Leverkusen. Patrick did not hide his intention of joining another team. Even though he confirmed that his departure to Bayer Leverkusen would follow the 2007–08 season, Köln coach Christoph Daum still named him captain of the squad in the summer of 2007. He was later replaced as captain, but nevertheless had a good second half of the season, for which kicker sportsmagazine named him best striker of Germany's second division, ahead of Oliver Neuville, Chinedu Obasi and Demba Ba.

Bayer Leverkusen
At Leverkusen, Helmes had a good start in the 2008–09 season, despite his injury in June which caused him being out of action for three weeks. Only months after signing until 2012, his contract was extended and was then valid until 2013. On 19 December 2010, he scored the second goal of the match to achieve a full-time draw against SC Freiburg.

VfL Wolfsburg
On 31 January 2011, Helmes moved to fellow Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg, the champion of 2008–09 for a reported fee of €8 million.