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For the Africa Cup and the Asian Cup, some Bundesliga clubs have to give up their regular players for at least a month.
Yamoussoukro/Doha – The year 2024 has some football highlights in store. All continental associations hold their respective tournaments. While the European Championship 2024 in Germany and the Copa América 2024 in the USA will only be held after the end of the European league season in June and July, both the Africa Cup and the Asian Cup start in January. As a result, some Bundesliga teams are missing important players at the start of the year. Depending on the performance of the respective national team, the professionals could be missing until mid-February.
Stuttgart, Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt have to do without many players
The cancellations for the two major football events hit the two positive surprise teams of this season, Bayer Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart, the hardest. The league leaders are giving up four players for the Africa Cup. This hits the Rhinelanders hard, as Victor Boniface (Nigeria), Amine Adli (Morocco), Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso) and Odilon Kossounou (Ivory Coast) have all played at least 20 games across all competitions.
But the Stuttgart representatives at the Africa Cup Serhou Guirrasy (Guinea) and Silas (DR Congo) as well as the nominees for the Asian Cup Hiroki Ito (Japan) and Woo-yeong Jeong (South Korea) are also an integral part of Stuttgart’s power football. The Africa Cup is causing a real personnel shortage for Eintracht Frankfurt. Ellyes Skhiri (Tunisia), Farès Chaibi (Algeria) and Omar Marmoush (Egypt) are traveling for their nations. However, the SGE is very active on the winter transfer market and is trying to compensate for the cancellations.
Omar Marmoush (Eintracht Frankfurt), Minjae Kim (FC Bayern) and Victor Boniface (Bayer Leverkusen) are absolute top performers in their clubs who are currently not available to their clubs. © Imago/Montage
Bundesliga players at the African or Asian Cup: All nominations at a glance
- Bayer Leverkusen: Victor Boniface (Nigeria), Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso), Amine Adli (Morocco), Odilon Kossounou (Ivory Coast)
- VfB Stuttgart: Serhou Guirassy (Guinea), Hiroki Ito (Japan), Woo-yeong Jeong (Südkorea), Silas (DR Kongo)
- Eintracht Frankfurt: Ellyes Skhiri (Tunisia), Omar Marmoush (Egypt), Fares Chaibi (Algeria)
- FC Bayern Munich: Minjae Kim (South Korea), Noussair Mazraoui (Morocco)
- Borussia Dortmund: Ramy Bensebaini (Algeria), Sébastien Haller (Ivory Coast)
- RB Leipzig: Amadou Haidara
- TSG Hoffenheim: Diadie Samassekou (Mali)
- SC Freiburg: Ritsu Doan (Japan)
- VfL Bochum: Takuma Asano (Japan)
- Mainz 05: Jae-sung Lee (South Korea)
- Union Berlin: Aissa Laidouni (Tunisia)
- Borussia Mönchengladbach: Ko Itakura (Japan)
- Werder Bremen: Near Keita (Guinea)
Most of the Bundesliga players are playing for Japan in the Asian Cup
But German record champions FC Bayern Munich also have to do without two defensive specialists in their pursuit of Leverkusen. Minjae Kim plays for South Korea at the Asian Cup. Noussair Mazraoui is in action for Morocco at the Africa Cup of Nations, as are Borussia Dortmund’s Ramy Bensebaini for Algeria and striker Sébastien Haller for hosts Ivory Coast. The top team from Leipzig will miss Amadou Haidara (Mali).
Werder Bremen’s injury-prone top transfer Naby Keita is fit again, but is currently preparing for the popular continental tournament with the Guinea national team. The 15th and 16th Bundesliga players who will be in action at the Africa Cup are the Malian Diadie Samassekou from Hoffenheim and the Tunisian Aissa Laidouni from Union Berlin. At the Asian Cup, Japan has the largest Bundesliga squad. In addition to Stuttgart’s Ito, Freiburg’s Ritsu Doan, Bochum’s Takuma Asano and Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Ko Itakura were nominated. The last member of the group is Jae-sung Lee from Mainz 05, who plays for South Korea. A total of 23 Bundesliga players are taking part in the Africa Cup and Asian Cup. (jsk)
2024-01-10 03:00:39
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