Africa Cup: Bayer Leverkusen has to release four important players

The Africa Cup of Nations will be played in Ivory Coast from January 13th. The top German teams are losing important players. Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt are particularly affected.

Xabi Alonso and Simon Rolfes have known it for a long time and have long since resigned themselves to their fate, so to speak: The “makers” of Bayer Leverkusen’s current successful team know very well that the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast (January 13th to February 12th, 2024) is a will cut a personal path into your team.

And this is exactly the fact now, as the African teams are gradually announcing their 27-man squads. With Odilon Kossonou (Ivory Coast), Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso) and Victor Boniface (Nigeria), Bayer will initially have to do without three important regular players in the new year. In addition, there is the shutdown of Amine Adli (Morocco), who is only a supplementary player in Leverkusen this season.

Bavarianresponsible don’t panic

It’s interesting that Bayer doesn’t complain much about the losses. Rolfes also doesn’t see any great need to strengthen the squad in the next transfer period in January: “Basically, when we put together the squad last summer, in addition to the triple burden and the opportunity to go far in the cup competitions, we of course also had Africa -Cup. We are therefore absolutely convinced of the players we have at our disposal. That is beyond question. Nevertheless, we will see in the winter whether there are suitable reinforcement options.”

The personnel loss at Bayer’s biggest championship rival Bayern Munich is much more relaxed. With Noussair Mazraoui (Morocco), the Tuchel team only loses a single player to the African event. Bayern have to do that Min Jae Kim (South Korea), who was nominated for the parallel Asia Cup.

Alarm in Frankfurt – three Key players away

Frankfurt Eintracht could probably be the Bundesliga team that suffers the most in this phase. With Ellyes Skhiri (Tunisia), Fares Khaibi (Algeria) and Omar Marmoush (Egypt), Eintracht loses three key players who coach Dino Toppmöller will certainly not be able to replace equally.

What may also be frightening for Eintracht is that all three players belong to teams that are among the favorites for the Cup in Ivory Coast. So you could go far – and be out for a correspondingly long time.

Guinea is “poaching” near Bremen and Stuttgart

A very special failure will concern Werder Bremen: Naby Keita has been called up to the Guinea squad as expected. The ex-Liverpool player, who Werder signed before the start of the season, is captain of his national team and something of a key player in his national team.

“Naby is captain of his team and very proud to play for his country. Try telling a captain from Germany not to play in the European Championship,” said Werder coach Ole Werner, who expressed his understanding for Keïta.

In terms of sport, the loss is limited – Keita has only made three part-time appearances for Werder this season, and you won’t be able to score goals.

Maybe back on January 24th

Keita will be able to rely on a teammate who VfB Stuttgart will miss sorely: Serhou Guirassy. The Swabians’ top scorer is of course also placed against tournament outsiders Guinea. How far the two of them will get in the tournament is anyone’s guess.

It is actually expected that Guinea will have difficulties in the group phase with their opponents Cameroon, Senegal and Gambia. If the team is eliminated then, the players can make their way back to Germany on January 24th.

Fifth division team Pforzheim provides Key players Mozambique

The 1. CfR Pforzheim is calmly looking towards the Africa Cup. The fifth division team from Baden-Württemberg is participating Stanley Ratifo one of Mozambique’s key players.

In Mozambique, his father’s homeland, Ratifo is a folk hero because of his goals. In his first competitive game on June 10, 2017, he scored the winning goal in stoppage time in a 1-0 win against Zambia. Mozambique had never previously won against Zambia. “First someone has to come from Europe and break the curse,” Ratifo said jokingly in “Steil! The SWR Sport Football Podcast” in 2020.

Mozambique is a complete outsider at the tournament in Ivory Coast. But no matter how far the team gets. Ratifo will be available to his club in the league in good time. In the Baden-Württemberg Oberliga, the Pforzheim team only continues on February 24th with a home game against ATSV Mutschelbach.