Before the top match against FC Bayern, Jonathan Tah (25) spoke about the new confidence at Bayer Leverkusen – and his future with Hansi Flick.
Jonathan Tah is one of those professional footballers who is worth listening to. An intelligent person talks about his job, reflective, self-critical, and also self-confident. Just 25 years old, he is not yet an older man, even in the fast-moving football business. And yet, in Leverkusen, he fills a role that is characterised by passing on acquired knowledge.
Tah has had difficult months professionally, a steep drop in his performance curve, combined with self-doubt and struggles. Today he knows that these struggles were worth it, there were a few black eyes, but in the end there was a victory over himself. He paid dearly for the crisis, the national team played the EURO without the man from Leverkusen. Today, he is back to the point where he can say: “That’s where I want to be. That’s where I belong. But I respect all decisions.”
There has been no contact with Hansi Flick yet. But the national coach will not have failed to notice that Tah has overcome the slump and things are looking up again. This is evidenced by his kicker grade point average of 2.86, but even more so by the extension of his contract until 2025. Bayer is counting on him, and the demands on the young veteran have grown: after the career end of the Bender twins Lars and Sven, it is Tah who has to contribute his experience and coach his young colleagues on the pitch. This is important, especially the older professionals have to keep an eye on those who still lack the necessary maturity: Edmond Tapsoba is 22, Odilon Kossounou 20, Piero Hincapié 19, Mitchel Bakker 21, Jeremy Frimpong 20, the injured Timothy Fosu-Mensah also only 23.
He doesn’t want to be the “boss” for this bunch of rascals, “I like the word leader better,” says Tah. Leader to a better time under new coach Gerardo Seoane, whom the player conspicuously often mentions when asked about the reasons for Leverkusen’s upswing. A statement like, “The coach has changed a lot,” is directly related to the reference to the fact that “there’s a team on the pitch today.” With Seoane, mentality has come into the dressing room: “Everyone has to take responsibility, for themselves and for the team.” The progress allows this conclusion: “We have grown up, even if we are younger overall.”
Enthusiasm instead of scepticism radiates from Tah before the top game (“We’re all fired up for the game!”): “I haven’t experienced this dynamic in the years before,” he says, who “feels a fundamentally positive energy.” And this wish: “I hope we can keep it going until the end of the season. “
