Bundesliga striker dives in at the deep end, goal guarantee today? | OneFootball

Bayer Leverkusen’s season already resembles a rollercoaster ride. A turbulent transfer summer, then the lightning-fast dismissal of Erik ten Hag, and most recently, a hard-fought Bundesliga victory that came at a high price. That’s why, in today’s Champions League clash, the spotlight suddenly shifts to a young man who loves exactly these kinds of moments.

Among the many diamonds who joined the Bayer cross before the season, he was the rawest: Christian Kofane. The 19-year-old was a complete unknown in German football. He first made headlines when it leaked that the B04 management paid a higher transfer fee than necessary for the Cameroonian.

Kofane had a release clause of five million euros at his then-club Albacete Balompié, but Leverkusen paid 5.25 million. The 2024 German champions spent an extra 250,000 euros for legal certainty that the coveted center forward would indeed move to the Rhineland.

The main reason for this was the rapid rise of the 1.89-meter-tall player. It was only in November 2024 that Kofane moved from his African homeland to Spain—and was initially intended for the youth squad.

There, the striker immediately recommended himself for bigger tasks with six goals in six games, which, by coincidence, soon arose. Due to acute personnel shortages in Albacete’s attack, Kofane made his debut in Spain’s second division on January 11. Just 119 seconds after the start of his first appearance in the starting lineup, his very first touch of the ball resulted in his debut goal.

Kofane doesn’t need a settling-in period, as he’s already proven in a Bayer shirt. In the season opener, the DFB-Pokal match against Sonnenhof-Großaspach, the new signing scored just six minutes after coming on as a substitute. He’s yet to score his first Bundesliga goal, but with only 114 minutes played so far, that’s hardly a cause for concern.

📸 Stuart Franklin - 2025 Getty Images

But starting at 9 p.m. against PSV Eindhoven, it’s likely to be: new debut, new luck. That’s because first-choice striker Patrik Schick is out for now with a thigh injury. Victor Boniface, his other direct competitor, has been loaned out. After two minutes against Copenhagen, Kofane now has the chance to be named in a Champions League starting eleven for the first time.

This is Kofane’s chance to once again prove his scoring instinct instantly at a new level.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 Christof Koepsel - 2025 Getty Images