Southampton defender Armel Bella-Kotchap has thrown the door open to a return to the Bundesliga, insisting he’d be happy to return to Germany this summer.
Sky Germany have comments from the Southampton defender today in which he admits he’s ready to return to the Bundesliga.
Bella-Kotchap is facing an interesting summer as he’s entering the final year of his deal with Southampton, which expires in 2026.
It means the Saints have to make a decision in the next window, with this their last opportunity to sell for any kind of sum before Bella-Kotchap is free to negotiate with clubs about a free transfer from January.
A return to the Bundesliga has been suggested for some time, with Sky reporting that Borussia Mönchengladbach and Werder Bremen have also courted the centre-back.
He’s very much open to that, even if he refuses to specifically comment on rumours about a transfer.
“Since I played in England, I have taken another step forward despite some setbacks,” he said.
“One will see how things continue. First of all, I want to finish this season as I said well, go into the summer break with a better feeling and charge my strength. Then you will see how the club is planning with me and wherever it can go for me – I’m definitely open to many things.
“I don’t want to and can’t go into individual rumours now, but what I can say is that I grew up in Germany, spent most of my life there, family and friends are still there.
“The Bundesliga return is definitely an option for me. People know what I was capable of doing. The Bundesliga is a very attractive address.”
For now, the focus is on finishing the season strongly with Southampton after a miserable year for the Saints following promotion last year.
They will be finishing bottom of the table by some distance, with just 12 points to their name so far and two wins from 36 games. They’ve narrowly avoided equalling Derby County’s record low of 11 points.
Now Bella-Kotchap admits the focus is saying goodbye in the right way after failing to make the grade this year.
“If you descend as the table last with such a distance, there can only be one opinion,” he added.
“Even if we were climbers, everyone had the goal of keeping the class and getting much more out than we did. This is very frustrating, but we also have to and will be dealing with it. We have two games in which we want to say goodbye.”
