Next setback for Hofmann: No place for the premier class

Jonas Hofmann will no longer be seen in the Champions League in 2025. picture alliance / SvenSimon

After a frustrating season under then-Bayer coach Xabi Alonso, things were supposed to get better for Jonas Hofmann this season. The now 33-year-old hoped that the attacking player, who had been relegated to permanent reserve, would have a fresh start under the new coach and get more playing time again. A wish that hasn't come true so far.

And the outlook for the former international isn't looking good either. After receiving a relatively high number of playing minutes at the beginning of pre-season—partly due to the lack of attacking personnel yet—Hofmann is now out of the picture again. In the season opener against Pisa SC in early August, Hofmann suffered a thigh injury, missed the rest of the pre-season, and has been missing from Leverkusen's matchday squad ever since.

This will be the case throughout the Champions League's league phase. Hofmann was one of four players from the current squad not selected for the Champions League. Neither, as expected, were the two convalescents, Martin Terrier (after a torn Achilles tendon) and Jeanuel Belocian (after a torn cruciate ligament), who are still working on their comebacks, nor the 19-year-old Argentinian striker Alejo Sarco .

Of this quartet, Hofmann is the hardest hit. Last season, he secured his place on the maximum 25-man A list by being the fourth player trained by the association, alongside Jonathan Tah , Florian Wirtz , and Robert Andrich , that each Champions League club must nominate.

Although Tah and Wirtz left the club in the summer, three DFB-trained professionals, Mark Flekken , Malik Tillman and Ibrahim Maza, were newly signed. Together with captain Andrich, they were now nominated as professionals trained by the association, meaning that Hofmann no longer had a guaranteed place in the squad through this local player regulation.

However, since Bayer 04 only has one of the four required club-trained professionals in Niklas Lomb , Bayer was only allowed to put a total of 22 instead of the maximum possible 25 professionals on List A, meaning that there were no places left for Hofmann in the normal squad.

The veteran, a highly reflective professional who accurately assesses his strengths and weaknesses and has had to work hard to achieve everything he has achieved throughout his career, is therefore lagging behind. He missed Wednesday's friendly against third-division side Viktoria Köln (2-1 loss) because, according to the club, he suffered a "minor setback" in his rehabilitation.

Once he's fit again, he'll have to catch up with his rivals. In every respect. In the number 10 positions, he'll definitely have Eliesse Ben Seghir ,Claudio Echeverri , Tillman, and Maza ahead of him. At the very least, his chances of playing wouldn't be great, even if he's at his best.

Whether this will change under the new coach, whom Bayer hopes to sign by the beginning of next week, is more than questionable. Hofmann, not only an undisputed regular starter in the first half of the season, but also a key player at the beginning, has little prospect of a future at Bayer 04.