Bayer Leverkusen’s season already resembles a rollercoaster experience. A turbulent switch summer time, then the lightning-fast dismissal of Erik ten Hag, and most just lately, a hard-fought Bundesliga victory that got here at a excessive value. That’s why, in immediately’s Champions League conflict, the highlight abruptly shifts to a younger man who loves precisely these sorts of moments.
Among the many many diamonds who joined the Bayer cross earlier than the season, he was the rawest: Christian Kofane. The 19-year-old was a whole unknown in German soccer. He first made headlines when it leaked that the B04 administration paid a better switch payment than obligatory for the Cameroonian.
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Kofane had a launch clause of 5 million euros at his then-club Albacete Balompié, however Leverkusen paid 5.25 million. The 2024 German champions spent an additional 250,000 euros for authorized certainty that the coveted middle ahead would certainly transfer to the Rhineland.
The primary purpose for this was the speedy rise of the 1.89-meter-tall participant. It was solely in November 2024 that Kofane moved from his African homeland to Spain—and was initially meant for the youth squad.
There, the striker instantly really useful himself for greater duties with six targets in six video games, which, by coincidence, quickly arose. Attributable to acute personnel shortages in Albacete’s assault, Kofane made his debut in Spain’s second division on January 11. Simply 119 seconds after the beginning of his first look within the beginning lineup, his very first contact of the ball resulted in his debut objective.
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Kofane doesn’t want a settling-in interval, as he’s already confirmed in a Bayer shirt. Within the season opener, the DFB-Pokal match towards Sonnenhof-Großaspach, the brand new signing scored simply six minutes after approaching in its place. He’s but to attain his first Bundesliga objective, however with solely 114 minutes performed to date, that’s hardly a trigger for concern.
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However beginning at 9 p.m. towards PSV Eindhoven, it’s prone to be: new debut, new luck. That’s as a result of first-choice striker Patrik Schick is out for now with a thigh damage. Victor Boniface, his different direct competitor, has been loaned out. After two minutes towards Copenhagen, Kofane now has the prospect to be named in a Champions League beginning eleven for the primary time.
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That is Kofane’s likelihood to as soon as once more show his scoring intuition immediately at a brand new degree.
This text was translated into English by Synthetic Intelligence.
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