Bayer-04 fans, please don’t be alarmed: International Florian Wirtz is not on the Werkself’s A-list for the knockout phase of the Europa League. And yet the club has only put 23 players on it instead of the allowed 25.
A gross mistake on the part of those responsible? Of course not. Because the club is by no means doing without its most valuable professional. On the contrary, the club has placed the 18-year-old Wirtz, who could still play for the U19s, on List B, through which young players can be entered for the competition.
The removal of Wirtz, Nadiem Amiri, on loan to CFC Genoa, and Panagiotis Retsos, given up to Hellas Verona, from List A makes room for Bayer to bring in three replacements: Winter buy and centre-forward Sardar Azmoun, right-back Timothy Fosu-Mensah, recovering from a cruciate ligament tear, and backup goalkeeper Lennart Grill, returning after his loan to Brann Bergen and needed due to Andrey Lunev’s absence (syndesmosis tear).
Baumgartlinger missing completely
On the other hand, Julian Baumgartlinger is completely absent from Bayer’s entry lists. The 34-year-old, who was back in the Werkself’s line-up for the first time on Saturday in the 1-1 draw in Munich after undergoing another knee operation in the autumn and a long history of suffering, but who according to the club has now had to dose up on the strain and was absent from training on Tuesday, would have been the fourth late entry. However, only three are allowed.
However, even if a fourth swap had been possible, another rule would have prevented Baumgartlinger’s nomination: Thus, each club must fill at least four of the 25 places on List A with a club-trained local player. However, only Niklas Lomb and Paulinho count as such on Bayer’s current List A, as well as Emrehan Gedikli (18), who was also initially reported, but has long since been sold to Trabzonspor and has since also been dropped.
Two of the 25 places remain vacant
Consequently, the Bundesliga club had to leave two of the 25 places vacant. And so it would not have made any difference if Bayer had not nominated local player Gedikli at the registration deadline.
Incidentally, the fact that Bayer was able to put Wirtz on List B was only possible because the offensive player has been eligible to play for Bayer continuously since January 2020 and thus just in time for two years. That is the prerequisite for a young player to be put on List B. And this passage prevented Bayer, for example, from re-nominating the two 16-year-old top talents signed in the summer of 2021, Zidan Sertdemir and Iker Bravo, via List B during the great personnel shortage in the autumn.