Leon Goretzka’s prospects at Bayern Munich for this season are not looking too good at all. From the club’s first four competitive matches of the season, the German midfielder has only recorded a total of one minute of action, when he came on as a late substitute in the 2-0 win over SC Freiburg at the Allianz Arena in the Bundesliga. He was not in the squad for the most recent 6-1 win at Holstein Kiel, nor was he in the squad for the 4-0 win over SSV Ulm in the first round of the DFB-Pokal last month.
Goretzka was heavily linked with a move away from Bayern during the summer transfer window, but nothing wound up materializing despite Max Eberl making it clear to the player he really is not in Vincent Kompany’s primary plans for this season. Both SSC Napoli and Atletico Madrid has loosely expressed interest in trying to sign Goretzka from Bayern over the summer, and even Galatasaray had made late moves for him, but the player was willing to stay at Bayern and fight for his place rather than take a potential wage cut to go elsewhere to get more minutes.
Per new information from football transfer expert Fabrizio Romano (via @iMiaSanMia), Goretzka could still wind up being sold by Bayern during the January transfer window. This will become more likely if his current situation within the team does not change within the next couple of months.
With the busy, packed fixtures list coming later this month and in October across all three fronts, there will certainly be chances for Kompany to make rotations and Goretzka to possibly get some minutes, but the evidence on display already does not suggest that will often be the case. With Joshua Kimmich, Aleksandar Pavlović, and João Palhinha in the squad as the main central midfielders, chances are few and far between for Goretzka. Not to mention, Kompany can also use Konrad Laimer and Raphaël Guerreiro in midfield if need be.
Nonetheless, Goretzka also needs to consider his future with Julian Nagelsmann and the German national team. If he wants to get recalled to the national team and be in the mix for the squad for the 2026 World Cup, he needs to be playing far more regularly.
