According to kicker information, Bayer Leverkusen are making intensive efforts to recruit goalkeeper Patrick Pentz from Stade Reims due to an injury to substitute keeper Andrey Lunev. Pentz was about to be signed in the USA.
Has aroused the interest of the Leverkusen team: Patrick Pentz.
IMAGO/ANP
In principle, the future of the four-time Austrian national goalkeeper was clear: Pentz was about to sign with the Colorado Rapids. The 26-year-old moved to Major League Soccer just six months after moving from Austria Wien to Stade Reims on a free transfer.
However, Pentz was not really happy with the French, as he only made seven appearances in Ligue Un. Another transfer was the logical consequence for him, it should be the Rapids. But now the deal with Colorado is wobbling.
Risk of a Lunev failure too great?
Because according to kicker information, Bayer Leverkusen contacted Pentz to bring the 1.84 meter man to the Rhine. Not number one, but number two. What has to do with Bayer goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky’s current deputy, Andrey Lunev.
The 31-year-old was not in the squad for the Werkself’s 2-0 win over VfL Bochum on Wednesday evening. The club justified this with back problems. These seem to be of a more serious nature, because apparently Bayer is too high the risk of a longer Lunev failure. Otherwise one would hardly bother with Pentz.
Two and a half year contract is in the room
A transfer of the Austrian would also be promising insofar as Lunev’s contract ends in the summer. So far there are no signs that Bayer is trying to extend the contract. Pentz, according to Bayer management’s idea, should succeed the Russian as the man behind Hradecky, whose working paper is again dated 2026.
A two-and-a-half-year contract is said to be in the room, and the talks are said to be well advanced. The fee for the ex-Viennese should be manageable. There was talk of a mid-six-figure amount for the potential Colorado transfer.
Pentz’s contract in Reims runs until 2025. But after the first seven matchdays of the current season, the native of Salzburg was replaced by 23-year-old Yehvann Diouf as number one. From then on, Pentz was only on the bench in the league. So it would hardly be surprising if he were to leave Stade – meanwhile there is much more to be said for a future in Leverkusen than in Denver, where the Rapids are based.
