Expected change
The surprising move from international Jonas Hofmann (30) to Bayer 04 Leverkusen has also left the Borussia Mönchengladbach team open-mouthed. “I was surprised,” said midfielder Julian Weigl (27) on Sunday at Borussia’s start of training. “Of course I would have liked to have gone into the year with him. But everyone makes their own decisions.”
Hofmann, who was considered the favorite for the captaincy in Gladbach after Lars Stindl (34) left Karlsruher SC, had an exit clause in his contract last week and switched to Leverkusen for 10 million euros. Gladbach’s sporting director Roland Virkus was annoyed about this afterwards: “We had intensive discussions with Jonas and fought to keep him at Borussia. The talks were very open and in the end we submitted an offer that met all of the conditions set by Jonas. The fact that he nevertheless decided to activate the release clause does not leave a good feeling.”
From 8 to 45 million: the most expensive departures from Borussia Mönchengladbach
Weigl, however, defended his previous teammate: “He obviously had the contractual opportunity to do so. After Yann Sommer (34; Bayern) in winter and now Marcus Thuram (25; Inter), Ramy Bensebaini (28; BVB) and Stindl, Hofmann is already the fifth top performer and regular player. which Borussia lost within half a year.
Hofmann departure: Gladbach’s upheaval according to Weigl “a great opportunity”
Gladbach gave up all of their top four goalscorers in the 2022/23 Bundesliga season – for a total fee of EUR 10 million. 39 of 52 Bundesliga goals are gone. “I’m not completely flabbergasted. I was already aware that there would be an upheaval,” Weigl continued. The 27-year-old is now considered a candidate for the captaincy.
“I’m sure that we as a team will absorb that and get one or two more players,” said Weigl. “Change is always a great opportunity. We have to take advantage of that now.” With Franck Honorat (26) from Stade Brest, a faithful successor to Hofmann could be in the starting blocks.
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