Extension “is not up to us”
Arminia Bielefeld is hoping for an early contract extension with goalkeeper Stefan Ortega. “It’s not up to us. Tego is welcome to come to my office tomorrow and sign the contract,” said sporting director Samir Arabi on the Saturday before the game at Bayer 04 Leverkusen on the pay TV channel “Sky”. The contract with the 29-year-old keeper expires at the end of June, and Arminia definitely wants to keep him.
Pavlenka, Ortega & Co.: Most valuable keeper with contract ending in 2022
Ortega is “undoubtedly an important building block for our style of play. We would like to, it’s not up to us,” said sports director Arabi and described the situation: “I try to put myself in the other side: that Stefan at his age might still want to earn one or two euros in the future. One is therefore also “on the market in case, we are not so naïve that we don’t get the contract with Stefan extended in the end.”
The focus at Arminia is also on Masaya Okugawa, who was signed by RB Salzburg last summer and is Bielefeld’s top scorer with nine goals. “He’s a very smart player who moves incredibly cleverly around the room,” said Arabi. “We have a good relationship with Salzburg and have brought a few players from Salzburg in the past. Some of the questions coming from Salzburg are joking, what we did to him that made him suddenly start scoring goals. He has improved on last season.”
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