Karim Bellarabi: Linked with Man Utd but lighting up Bayer Leverkusen

Karim Bellarabi will be hoping to fire Bayer Leverkusen into the Champions League quarter-finals against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday. But who is he? Adam Bate finds out more about the reported Manchester United target in conversation with Sky Deutschland’s Marco Wiefel…

It’s been quite a season for Karim Bellarabi. Just nine seconds into it, the Leverkusen man kicked it off with the fastest goal in Bundesliga history to silence the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund. Five months on, the right-sided attacking midfielder is a Germany international being linked with a summer switch to Manchester United.

The 24-year-old has netted 10 times in the Bundesliga this season, but that tells only part of the story. His 131 dribbles put him in the company of Eden Hazard and Lionel Messi as one of the top take-on merchants in Europe’s major leagues so far this season.

Having forced his way into Joachim Low’s Germany squad – no mean feat given their World Cup heroics in the summer – Bellarabi is clearly a player on the up in a big way since returning from a loan spell at Eintracht Braunschweig in the summer, the club with whom he began his career.

We caught up with Sky Deutschland’s resident Leverkusen expert Marco Wiefel to find out more about Bellarabi’s past, present and future…

Has he impressed you this season?

He’s a very impressive player. He’s a player who needs a special relationship with his coach. In the years when he played at Braunschweig he played under Torsten Lieberknecht. Lieberknecht picked him for Braunschweig in the third division, in the second division and then took him back again when they were in the first division.

At Leverkusen he now has a very good relationship with his coach Roger Schmidt. Rudi Voller said at the start of the season that they could send him away or take another player instead of him because he doesn’t have so much experience. But Schmidt from the beginning told everyone that Bellarabi is his player and he wants this player at Leverkusen. He trusted in him and the player has delivered.

What are his strengths?

He’s a technical player and a very intelligent player. He knows exactly what the coach needs and what the coach wants. He can also defend as well and that’s important. When the ball is lost in the offence, he runs back and gets into position.

What sort of character is he?

He has said that he has signed his new contract because he feels really good at Leverkusen playing with guys like Hakan Calhanoglu and Son Heung-Min. He is someone who needs a group of players who he can play with. He needs those characters in the team so that he can perform at his best. He’s a very quiet character but for someone of 24 he is very strong and mature.

Has he handled the step up with Germany well?

Absolutely. It’s a huge step for him because in one year he’s gone to Leverkusen and the next step was the national team. So it’s been a very fast development for him. But I think he can handle it.

Could he succeed at Europe’s biggest clubs?

I believe he could succeed at Bayern or any top European club, but I think he’s lucky that he can grow at Leverkusen. This is a club where you can be allowed to mature as the likes of Michael Ballack or Ze Roberto did in the past. You can develop as a player and gain a lot of experience at a high-class level and then you can make that next step.

The pressure from the media at Leverkusen is not the same as in Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg or Munich – the big football cities. So you have time to grow up and I think that is the position that Bellarabi is in.

I think he wants to stay at Leverkusen because Leverkusen has its own style and that’s the style for Bellarabi. It’s perfect for him and I think he knows that. That’s why he might be advised staying at Leverkusen for a while longer and staying with this young team – guys like Calhanoglu, Son Heung-Min and Julian Brandt - in the hope of winning a trophy together.

So you don’t expect him to move in the summer?

He has signed a contract until 2020. Normally they don’t sign a contract when there is interest from Barcelona and others so my feeling is that there must be a stipulation in the contract. There is nothing official but I think there is an agreement in the contract that he can go if Barcelona or Manchester United are willing to pay over €40million for him.

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