Andrich’s sudden U-turn at Bayer Leverkusen: will it be like with Goretzka?

Two years ago, Robert Andrich first grabbed the attention of football fans across Germany. At the home Euros, he rather surprisingly started every game under then coach Julian Nagelsmann. His pink hair stood out, so did his athletic edge and his uncompromising tackling. He did the running for the artists and ball-players Toni Kroos and Ilkay Gündogan, before the DFB team went out to eventual European champions Spain in the quarter-finals.

Now he is no longer wanted by the national team, and Nagelsmann did not include him in his squad for the World Cup this summer. Things had also started to look increasingly bleak at club level. Carles Martinez arrived as the new coach after a disappointing season in which Bayer finished sixth and missed out on the Champions League. The Spaniard quickly made it clear he was not counting on Andrich.

In mid-August, he took the captain's armband off him and handed it to Edmond Tapsoba instead. "At the moment, the situation is that in this midfield position he is initially taking on more of a secondary role," said Martinez, adding: "At least now he knows where he stands. That way he can prepare for what might be best for him and best for us." From the coach's point of view, what would be best for everyone involved seemed obvious: a separation.

That situation recalls what Leon Goretzka once faced at Bayern Munich, when in the summer of 2024 coach Vincent Kompany and the other FCB decision-makers also offered him little more than a place on the bench in an attempt to push him towards the exit.

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Once Andrich lost the captaincy, his wife Alicia stepped in for the first time. Having of course learned of her husband's demotion, she posted a single sentence, fittingly in Spanish so coaches such as Carles Martinez could understand it without any problem: "Karma will sort that out." She later denied on social media that this was what she had meant, but that only made the issue bigger.

Andrich situation does not become more concrete at Frankfurt and Leipzig

Robert Andrich was no more willing to accept the new secondary role than his wife apparently was, so Bundesliga clubs such as Eintracht Frankfurt and RB Leipzig are said to have sensed their chance and enquired about the 31-year-old. Before last weekend, though, nothing had become truly concrete. That left Carles Martinez's press conference before the Bundesliga opener in Elversberg as the next source of talking points.

When asked whether he had spoken to Andrich about his role for the season, the coach replied in faltering English: "Honestly, I don't speak with him." A secondary role and no direct line to the coach, as recently as last Friday, all signs pointed to Andrich leaving quickly.

Then Bayer opened their Bundesliga campaign in Elversberg, and the visitors were 2-0 down before ten minutes had passed on the way to a 3-2 defeat. That prompted Alicia Andrich's second intervention. She liked kicker's post "Petkov makes history: first Bundesliga goal for Elversberg", before removing the like again a few hours later. Without Andrich, who remained on the bench for the full 90 minutes, Leverkusen could hardly have fared worse against the promoted side, and his wife apparently enjoyed that, at least briefly.

Will Robert Andrich be needed by Bayer again?

Whether that disappointing defeat was the reason Bayer's decision-makers changed course on Andrich shortly afterwards will remain unanswered, but it seems a fair assumption. Exequiel Palacios, one of Bayer's defensive midfielders, had also left for Premier League newcomers Ipswich. With Kennet Eichhorn another central option facing a longer spell out, and Equi Fernandez unable to build on his strong pre-season in Elversberg, Robert Andrich was suddenly back in demand. "He is here. He is a leader in our team," Carles Martinez said after the defeat. All of a sudden, "leader" sounded very different to "secondary role".

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At the same time, the coach insisted he had simply phrased his earlier comment about not speaking to Andrich wrongly: "Yes, I said that I don't speak to Robert. The sentence should correctly have been: I haven't spoken to him again yet since Exequiel Palacios left," he clarified on Saturday. Following that verbal retreat, Monday then brought news from kicker that after a spectacular U-turn, Robert Andrich would not leave the club after all and would instead stay at Bayer.

Whether the much-cited karma Alicia Andrich spoke of had anything to do with the rethink is open to question. Football moves fast, and Robert Andrich may just be the latest example. Leon Goretzka did much the same. After a few months on the bench at Bayern Munich, he played his way back into the spotlight in late autumn 2024. Last season, he suddenly became a regular starter for FCB again before now moving to Aston Villa, two years after, like Robert Andrich now, he had effectively already been shown the door in words.

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