Jonas Hofmann: The forgotten man in Xabi Alonso's star-studded side
When the dust settles on this season and football fans can look back on Bayer Leverkusen’s achievements (whether that be their first every league title or an equally historic double or treble that may be on the cards in the coming weeks), it’s not hard to envisage which players will be promoted to the role of poster boys and heralded as the heroes of Xabi Alonso’s team.
Wing-backs Jeremie Frimping and Alejandro Grimaldo have personified Leverkusen’s gung-ho football with their double-team tactics from one week to the next, while Florian Wirtz represents the kind of generational talent that is often required to lift a club above its station and on to remarkable new heights. However, one player that will likely be overlooked entirely is Jonas Hofmann. The forgotten man of this title-winning team.
The attacking midfielder made the move to Leverkusen last summer, following a seven-year spell at Borussia Park that had seen Hofmann emerge as an outstanding Bundesliga talent that quickly epitomised Gladbach’s exciting football on the pitch and smart thinking off it. But as the Foals begun to stumble under the stewardship of sporting director Max Eberl, Hofmann went from being a leading example to the exception to the rule.
In his last three seasons at the club - in which Gladbach went from top-four contenders to mid-table cannon fodder - Hofmann watched as the team around him was whittled down to little more than a who’s who of has-been Bundesliga journeymen and disinterested prospects. However, the Heidelberg-born midfielder never seemed to give up on Gladbach, even after it had long given up on itself.
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