Bayer Leverkusen and FC Augsburg are suffering the most from the African Cup

As of: December 15, 2025 1:34 p.m

Every two years: The Africa Cup breaks the season of the European leagues. From the Bundesliga, Bayer Leverkusen and FC Augsburg are massively affected by player releases.

Kasper Hjulmand will have to improvise a lot on Saturday (December 20, 2025). The Bayer Leverkusen coach will be missing four important players in the top Bundesliga game in Leipzig. Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso), Ibrahim Maza (Algeria), Eliesse Ben Seghir (Morocco) and Christian Kofane (Cameroon) are needed for the Africa Cup of Nations, which will be held in Morocco from December 21st to January 18th.

Ben Seghir has been mostly on the bench since his move to Leverkusen in the summer, but the absence of the other three Bayer professionals is a serious factor: Tapsoba is in defense, Maza, the discovery of the last few weeks in defensive midfield, and Kofane, with five goals in all competitions so far, is an important factor in Leverkusen’s offensive game.

Leipzig’s Diomande may be missing against FC Bayern

Leverkusen’s only consolation is that the Africa Cup of Nations is also an unpleasant topic for their opponents. Leipzig will have to do without Yan Diomande. The lightning-quick striker, who already has six goals to his name this season, is one of the bright hopes for his home country Ivory Coast.

The Ivorians will do everything in their power to defend their 2024 title. And they are also one of the top favorites. This means: They will probably go far and the 19-year-old Diomande may be missing from his club in three more league games. RB plays at FC St. Pauli on January 10th, hosts SC Freiburg on the 14th and plays at home in the top game against FC Bayern on January 17th.

Augsburg was badly hit

Overall, the Bundesliga will be missing a few stars in these weeks. For their part, FC Bayern will only have to give up Nicolas Jackson (Senegal), while Leverkusen and FC Augsburg will be hit hard. There is currently a relegation battle raging there, which the FCA will have to continue in the coming games without three important players. Coach Manuel Baum will have to do without Samuel Essende (DR Congo) as well as Elias Saad and Ismael Gharbi (both Tunisia) against Werder Bremen at the weekend.

Eintracht Frankfurt will play at Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga in 2025 and will have to think about a new central midfield line-up. With Fares Chaibi (Algeria) and Ellyes Skhiri (Tunisia), two “sixes” are out.

FIFA helps clubs break all the rules

The clubs are of course aware of the Africa Cup problem, which recurs every two years – so the quarrels were harmless. Especially since the world football association FIFA gave the clubs a lot of help this time by quickly pushing back the cancellation deadline by a week.

An affront to the African national teams, who complain about a lack of appreciation before their most important event. “It proves once again how disrespectful FIFA is towards African football interests”for example, Mali’s national coach Tom Sainfiet was angry.

The tournament had to give way to the Club World Cup

A justified opinion given that the Africa Cup, which was actually supposed to take place last summer, was postponed to the end of the year because of the FIFA Club World Cup. How FIFA is simply ignoring its own rules in this case is shown by the fact that the current date of the Africa Cup of Nations does not even appear in the official FIFA calendar. Which, purely formally, is actually the basis for an exemption requirement.