Robin Koch will choose between two Bundesliga clubs with the Leeds United defender not keen on a return to the Premier League with Newcastle United.
There are, Kicker say, two key reasons why Leeds United’s Germany international has reservations about joining Eddie Howe’s upwardly-mobile, Champions League-bound Magpies side.
Robin Koch reportedly wants to join a club where he could take on something of a ‘leadership role’. He wants to be a starter, a key player, rather than merely a squad member. And, given that Newcastle boasted the joint-best defensive record in the whole of the Premier League last season, Koch is likely to be under no illusions that – if he was to end up at St James’ Park – he’d be a back-up option behind Fabian Schar and the outstanding Sven Botman.
What’s more, the former Freiburg man feels that a return to Germany would be beneficial to his hopes of featuring for the national team during next summer’s European Championships on home soil.
Koch, who joined Leeds for £13 million back in 2020, has played only once for Germany over the last year-and-a-half.
Robin Koch could leave Leeds United
Kicker add that the former SC Freiburg man will now choose between two Bundesliga options; Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen.
“I don’t think it makes sense to comment on individual names,” Frankfurt’s sporting director Markus Krosche told Sky Deutschland this week.
Before then doing exactly the opposite.
“Robin Koch is an interesting name. No question about it. But we are still at the beginning (of the window). And there are still many issues that we want to tackle in the future.”
Frankfurt need a replacement for Evan Ndicka following the Frenchman’s move to Roma. Leverkusen, meanwhile, could lose Jonathan Tah and/or Edmond Tapsoba, amid Premier League interest in both players.
Leeds Live, meanwhile, rebuff claims that Koch has a clause in his contract allowing him to leave the Yorkshire giants for free following their return to the Championship.