Ex-national player Max Meyer has turned down offers from abroad to return to the Bundesliga, but a comeback at FC Schalke 04 was never an option. “That was not an issue because there was no request,” said the new addition to 1. FC Köln in a video slot on Monday. The bottom of the table Schalke, for whom Meyer played a total of nine years until 2018, had brought back two ex-stars in Sead Kolasinac and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar this winter.
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After terminating his contract with the Premier League club Crystal Palace, he had “had one or two offers, including from abroad,” said Meyer: “But I wanted to go back to the Bundesliga.” In Cologne he feels “in good hands. This is a huge club with great impact.” Ultimately, the relationship with Cologne’s sports director Horst Heldt was decisive. “The contact has never been broken,” said Meyer: “He made me a professional, so I still feel grateful.”
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That he will stay longer than the previously agreed year in the event of relegation is “conceivable,” said the 25-year-old: “We’ll discuss that in the summer.” He was “not even aware that FC will receive Schalke for a possible relegation final on the last matchday. But I hope that we will have enough points by then and that it will not be a final.”
Meyer does not regret his time in England. “There were ups and downs,” he said. “It was an instructive and wonderful time, even if it wasn’t that good in the end.” After his short debut as a substitute in the 90th minute on Sunday against Bielefeld (3: 1) Meyer is also happy to the cup round of 16 on Wednesday at second division Jahn Regensburg. “In England, the trophy is not that important,” said the four-time international: “That’s why I missed the DFB Cup very much.”
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