Loris Karius

Early career

Karius played for local team SG Mettenberg and SSV Ulm before joining VfB Stuttgart, where he rose through the youth ranks and appeared for the German under-16 national team against FYROM in September 2008. Manchester City invited Karius and his family to England after watching him in Germany's under-16 game against Azerbaijan, and completed his signing on 1 July 2009. Karius played for the under-18 and the under-21 Manchester City teams, but did not make a senior appearance during his time in Manchester.

Mainz 05

He was loaned to Mainz 05 in August 2011, where he played for Mainz 05's reserve team, Mainz 05 II, in the Regionalliga. On 11 January 2012, the move was made permanent with Karius committing himself to a two-year deal with an option for a third year that would extend his contract to June 2015. He made his Mainz 05 debut on 1 December 2012 in a Bundesliga match against Hannover 96 when he was substituted for Shawn Parker after goalkeeper Christian Wetklo had been sent off, which, aged 19 years and 5 months, made Karius the youngest goalkeeper ever to play in the Bundesliga for Mainz. He made no further appearances in the 2012–13 season, but established himself as first-choice goalkeeper in the 2013–14 season and on 12 January 2015 signed a three-year contract extension. Karius was ever-present in the 2015–16 season, keeping nine clean sheets, saving two penalties and being voted the second-best goalkeeper in the league in a poll of…

Karius represented Germany at all youth levels from under-16 onward, but his appearances were limited due to competition from other goalkeepers.

Karius was born in Biberach, Baden-Württemberg to Christine and Harald Karius. Harald intended for his son to become a motocross rider, but Loris' grandfather, Karl, encouraged him to focus on football. Karius attended Pestalozzi-Gymnasium Biberach until his move to England in 2009 where he was then privately tutored.

Karius has been in a relationship with Italian television presenter and model Diletta Leotta since 2022. In March 2023, they announced that she was pregnant and expecting their first child. The couple got engaged later in the year, and Leotta gave birth to their first daughter, named Aria, on 16 August 2023. They were married on 22 June 2024, at a private ceremony on the island of Vulcano near Sicily in Leotta's native Italy. In May 2026, the couple welcomed their second child, a boy named Leonardo.