In the squad against Leipzig
©IMAGO
Christian Kofane was supposed to be on his way to the Africa Cup like his three teammates, but instead he was on the training ground in Leverkusen on Tuesday. The striker was nominated by Cameroon for the tournament in Morocco, but can still take part in the last Bundesliga game against RB Leipzig on Saturday – the reason for this is legendary striker Samuel Eto’o.
The same rule actually applies to all clubs: Since last Monday, clubs have been obliged to release nominated players for the Africa Cup of Nations. This hits Bayer 04 particularly hard as four professionals, Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso), Ibrahim Maza (Algeria), Eliesse Ben Seghir (Morocco) and Kofane, will be missing from the last game before the winter break. But a solution has now been found for the latter.
Because Cameroon only starts the tournament against Gabon on Christmas Eve, Wednesday next week, Leverkusen was allowed an exception for Kofane. According to a “Kicker” report, the relationships between Eric Depolo, the 19-year-old’s advisor, and Eto’o, who is head of the Lions Indomptables, helped. On the sidelines of the Champions League game between Bayer 04 and Paris Saint-Germain (2:7) In October they both met at the BayArena and agreed to arrive later.
Leverkusen is thinly staffed in the attack center due to Patrik Schick’s ankle injury. Kofane has already started ten times this season and has five goals and five assists. He should get another chance against Leipzig and, ideally, fly to Morocco with a lot of euphoria.