Goretzka to Make January Decision with Liverpool and Arsenal Waiting

Will Leon Goretzka sign for Liverpool or Arsenal? Or will it maybe be Juventus? Could whispers of Bayern and Barcelona interest turn to solid offers? Might he even re-sign for Schalke? We have no idea, and probably nobody beyond Goretzka’s inner circle really knows what’s likeliest at the moment.

We won’t have long to wait to find out, though, with the player admitting to the German press that while he still hasn’t made a final decision on what the next step in his career will be, that final decision is close at hand and any questions about what choice it is he’s going to make won’t stretch past January.

“I will not last beyond January,” the 22-year-old midfielder said on Sunday when asked about the timeline to decide his future. “I have not set a deadline, but I can say I’m in the final stages. I don’t care about money, I just have to figure out for myself which step should be next for me and I’m in that process now.”

Recently, Oliver Bierhoff of the German national team coaching staff suggested that the chances of Goretzka ending up in Italy weren’t more than 20%—though he thinks current Liverpool midfielder Emre Can is almost certain to sign a pre-contract agreement with Juventus in January.

That would seem to take at least one option off the table, and so far at least the most serious interest has seemed to come from England. If Bayern Munich or Barcelona are seriously interested, though, it would be hard to see him not either staying in Germany or heading off to join the La Liga giants.

Liverpool, though, appear to believe they’re in the running for Goretzka, whose arrival—along with that of Naby Keïta next summer—would go a long way to making the likely departures of Emre Can and Philippe Coutinho easier to live with.