In the summer of 2020, Timo Werner dares to make the big leap into the English Premier League. For 53 million euros he moves from Leipzig to Chelsea in London. But he will never be happy there. Now he's probably coming back. Ironically, Bayern boss Hasan Salihamidžić reports doubts.
First Sadio Mané moved from Liverpool to Bayern Munich, now DFB star Timo Werner is about to move from the Premier League to the Bundesliga. Cup winner RB Leipzig has justified hopes that the former top scorer will return. Apparently only the last details have to be clarified. Then the 26-year-old returns for the Saxons, where he already scored goals on an assembly line before his career at Chelsea faltered.
The 53 million euro man never arrived in London. Numerous small and large anecdotes bear witness to this. For example, when he attended the Formula 1 race in Spielberg in the summer of 2021 after leaving the 2020 European Championships, a British Sky reporter introduced the striker as the “Chelsea and Germany goalkeeper”. He had already had to endure the scorn and ridicule of the CFC supporters during a long dry spell.
They wondered about the man from the Bundesliga. Also because of Werner, but also because of the disappointing performance of former Dortmund player Jadon Sancho at Manchester United, the term "Bundesliga Tax" spread among some English journalists. They argued that the players from the German upper house are fundamentally far too expensive.
Meanwhile, Werner sought support from the very top. "It's been my business for years to get those chances and I'm sure I'll get there again. Next year it'll start from scratch, I'll keep working hard and maybe the football gods will think a little better next season me," he said shortly before the European Championship at Sport1. Unfortunately, the football god had no time for him in the 2021/2022 season either.
In 37 appearances, about half of them as a substitute, he scored 11 goals and provided six assists. Not a satisfactory value for the national player, who after all had switched to the Thames with the recommendation of 28 Bundesliga goals in his last season for Leipzig. There he got a total of only 23 goals in 89 competitive games. Most recently, he hadn't made it into the squad at Chelsea and had previously fallen out a little with coach Thomas Tuchel. The World Cup in Qatar was of course in danger. "It's clear I want to play more and I should play more to be in good shape for the World Cup and have a chance to play," he said.
So he was never able to build on his first days in Leipzig and seemed miserable with his situation at Stamford Bridge most of the time. In the past few weeks, there have already been indications that the future of the DFB star would lie outside of the Premier League. Although Juventus Turin was interested, Werner didn't really want to warm up to it. This is how the return to his oasis of well-being in Leipzig looks like.
RB should pay something between 30 and 35 million euros for this, reports Sky and the "Bild" trades the price for Werner down to "a maximum of 20 million euros plus bonuses". In addition, the 26-year-old should also be willing to cut back on his salary. So far he has earned about 18 million euros at Chelsea - too high a sum for Leipzig. In Germany, however, only the players from FC Bayern Munich are in this category.
Critical tones about the upcoming transfer came from there late on Sunday. "He has his strengths. He needs space, has a good finish - the question is how Leipzig wants to play. He worked in the system they used before. That wasn't the case with Chelsea," explained FCB Sports director Hasan Salihamidžić at Sky 90: "With the competition for Nkunku, Silva and Olmo, the question remains whether it can work, but Leipzig certainly has a plan."
Coach Domenico Tedesco's team also needs that. After the rather disappointing 1:1 at VfB Stuttgart and the hopeless 3:5 in the Supercup against Bayern Munich, the cup winner is still looking for the first sense of achievement of the new season. And anyway, the coach prefers to have a large selection. "When you come here," Tedesco said on Sunday, "you have to accept that. It's about performance."
There is no clarity about the transfer yet. Werner, said Leipzig boss Oliver Mintzlaff, "be an interesting player, we're dealing with it. I can't say yet whether it will happen." But the chances of that happening are pretty good. Can Werner, however, build on his old achievements after the return campaign? Uncertain. System rival Borussia Dortmund was rarely happy with similar transfers.
