Twelve years after making his Bundesliga debut for Bochum, the Witten native is about to make an emotional return.
Since 2004 and the C-youth, Kevin Vogt has played for VfL Bochum. There, the homegrown signed his first professional contract and made his Bundesliga debut on 18 April 2009. Vogt was substituted six minutes before the end in the 0:2 defeat against Dortmund on match day 28. It was to be his last Bundesliga minutes for Bochum. The VfL was relegated in the following season, and the youngster’s development was also set back by injuries. It was not until the 2010/11 season that Vogt made his breakthrough at the then second-division club, which he left in 2012 for Augsburg and the Bundesliga.
Emotional return to the Ruhrstadion
Since then, the Witten native played two years at FCA, two at 1. FC Köln and since 2016, apart from a six-month loan to Werder Bremen, at Hoffenheim and always first-class. Even in the cup, Vogt never made it back to his old place of work. On Saturday, he will make a late and certainly emotional return to the promoted team and the Ruhrstadion. The last time he played there was more than nine years ago, when he was still playing in midfield alongside Christoph Kramer, who later won the World Cup and is now a Gladbach player. Vogt even scored the late equaliser in the 2-2 draw with 1860 Munich in the second division. The first of two professional goals for Bochum, the second followed curiously enough in the following match in Cottbus (1:1), at the same time his last appearance in the VfL jersey.
Vogt’s contract expires
The last of the defensive specialist’s only three goals in the Bundesliga, in Cologne’s 2-1 win over Dortmund, was also over seven years ago. Vogt is now 30 years old and is entering the home stretch of his career. His contract with TSG, where he has become a highly-paid key player over the years, expires after this season. In the summer, a long-term offer almost lured him back to Augsburg, with FCA reportedly offering the veteran a four-year contract, but the transfer did not materialise.
So he meets his training club in the Hoffenheim jersey. Vogt has been in Hoffenheim’s starting eleven in eight of the ten games so far this season, most recently again in the 2:0 win against Berlin as the left link of a three-man backline. In the two games before that against Cologne (5:0) and in Munich (0:4), however, he was left out. Let’s see what coach Sebastian Hoeneß decides this time.
