No Takers for Ex-Liverpool Centre Half Ozan Kabak

Young Turkish defender Ozan Kabak was not made a permanent team member at Liverpool after his loan spell ended, with Liverpool instead bringing in Ibrahima Konate from RB Leipzig. Meanwhile, Schalke’s relegation has meant that they will be unable to keep him.

It’s a situation that Bundesliga journalist Constantin Eckner spoke to recently to The Liverpool Echo’s Blood Red Podcast.

“Kabak is rated highly but Schalke need him to go because they can’t pay him,” Eckner noted. “That is the situation. Kabak was set to return to training with Schalke after his holidays after the Euros but they told him to have more days off to find a new club.

“He has the right to train if he wants to, but there is no point! It is a really weird situation.”

Kabak’s Liverpool stint was a mixed experience for the club, but the player filled an obvious need for them in the midst of an injury crisis and it was clearly a chance that the player himself was thrilled to get.

“The first thought a couple of months ago was that he would stay with Liverpool,” Eckner added. “They were not the worst six months in his career and he did a decent job, playing alongside Nat Phillips and all the rest of the stuff going on with the defence.”

“But after they signed Konate, there was probably no way they would sign Kabak as well at this point with three first-choice defenders returning.

“The next thought was that he could go to Leicester because Brendan Rodgers plays a back-three and they have four first-rate defenders and adding one more was reasonable, but negotiations went nowhere.”

This is certainly a horrifying situation for a young player of Kabak’s potential to be in, and would seem to show at least some degree of mismanagement on the part of Schalke.

Now, with no obvious takers and speculation Schalke could be forced to terminate his contract as they would struggle to pay his wages if he stays, the hope is that he will soon find a decent club at which he can grow and develop further.