Bayer 04 Leverkusen will continue to rely on Niklas Lomb beyond the season. The number 3 in goal has an important function even without playing time.
Highlight of the season so far: Niklas Lomb can take part in the Europa League against Molde FK. IMAGO/Nordphoto
Niklas Lomb will not soon forget December 14, 2023. In the sportingly insignificant 5-1 home win against Molde FK on the last matchday of the Europa League group stage, Bayer Leverkusen’s goalkeeper stood between the posts in a competitive game for the first time in almost three years and was celebrated by the fans. Now he can hope for more highlights of this kind.
On Monday, the Leverkusen team announced that the contract with the now 30-year-old homegrown player, which expired in the summer, had been extended by three years until June 30, 2027. Lomb is also seen as number 3 behind regular goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky and his DFB Cup and Europa League representative Matej Kovar as an important squad member. “It’s a good symbiosis at the moment,” Hradecky said in a kicker interview at the end of February, “also with Niklas Lomb, who is a cult figure here.”
Sports director Simon Rolfes also underlines its value in the club’s statement: “In recent years, Niklas has always reliably inserted himself into our squad as an absolute team player. As a guarantee of a high level of training, he was and is an important building block in our ambitious team, even without much playing time Teams. Niklas should and will continue to live up to this standard in the future.”
Lomb sees “wonderful vote of confidence”
Lomb joined Bayer 04 at the age of 15 and, apart from loan spells at Halleschen FC (January to June 2015), Preußen Münster (2015/16) and SV Sandhaut (2018/19), remained loyal to this day. However, in all these years he only made two appearances for his hometown club in the Bundesliga and five in the Europa League.
He sees the contract extension as a “renewed and wonderful show of trust from Bayer 04. For anyone like me who came here as a teenager, such a long-term signing as a 30-year-old is something very special. Now I will fight for it with all my might, together “To achieve the club’s current and future goals with our team and the entire club.” After all, three titles await, they would be his first.
2024-04-08 12:19:23
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