Bayer Leverkusen’s Alejandro Grimaldo still keen to play in La Liga | OneFootball

Spanish international Alejandro Grimaldo very much remains a “child of the Bundesliga”. It was only after joining Bayer Leverkusen on a free transfer ahead of the 2023/24 campaign that the fullback/wingback truly began to blossom. Given a chance to thrive under Spanish compatriot Xabi Alonso, Grimaldo earned his first Spanish national team cap in November 2023 at the age of 27.

The now 29-year-old still hasn’t featured at the top level in his native country. Benfica purchased him from the Barcelona B squad in January of 2016. To the now nine-times-capped Spanish international’s credit, he wasn’t one of the players ready to follow Xabi in a mass exodus away from Germany’s red company team. Despite the fact that his 30th birthday is rapidly approaching, Grimaldo remains patient.

“I would very much like to give it a shot in Spain,” Grimaldo told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. “It doesn’t have to be this year. It could be next year. It could be in two years. It could even be in five years.”

Grimaldo told the German paper that he still felt as if Leverkusen could accomplish great things under new head coach Erik ten Hag. One must still note that Granit Xhaka’s recent move to Sunderland served as the 14th outgoing transfer fromthe club this summer.

Once keeper Lukas Hradecky’s move to Monaco is confirmed, Leverkusen will officially have gotten 15 players off the squad. This number does factor loan outs into account. For example, a loan out to FC Lorient for recently acquired prospect Abdoulaye Faye serves as the 13th departure.

Irrespective of how one tallies it up, however, Leverkusen are currently operating with a 24-man-squad. At least five to six players must be added to ten Hag’s selection pool in order to give the Dutch head coach a reasonable chance of competing in the league, cup, and Champions League.

GGFN | Peter Weis