John Brooks, when healthy, is a firmly-entrenched fixture in the Hertha Berlin lineup, but it appears another Bundesliga team is set to come in with a big offer to secure the U.S. Men’s National Team defender’s transfer.
According to Kicker, Wolfsburg is set to offer Hertha Berlin at least €20 million to sign the USMNT defender. The defender’s contract with Hertha Berlin runs through 2019, but the German outlet says a change is “imminent” as Hertha Berlin looks to retool their team using the money generated from Brooks’ sale.
The fee would be the highest ever paid for an American, beating out Jozy Altidore’s €13 million move to Sunderland.
According to the report, Brooks had been hoping for a move to the Premier League, but has yet to receive any offers from England thus far. Hit with injuries throughout the season, the defender appeared in played in 24 Bundesliga games for Hertha Berlin in a campaign that saw the club seal a sixth-place finish and a Europa League spot.
Wolfsburg, meanwhile, was far less successful. The club topped Eintracht Braunschweig in Monday’s relegation playoff, sealing their spot in the Bundesliga for next season. Wolfsburg allowed 52 goals last season and currently features centerbacks Jeffery Bruma and Robin Knoche as the primary pairing in central defense.
Brooks recently joined up with the USMNT ahead of a pair of June World Cup qualifiers.
not sure how transfers in the bundesliga work, but is this really a transfer brooks could have said no to? From Hertha’s perspective, it is a no brainer. $17m will buy you another center back + some other players.
I just saw Kasey Keller’s projected starters and he had Omar instead of Brooks. Is Brooks injured or something?
he’s been injured off and on all season and picked up another injury a few weeks ago where he had to come out of the game early i believe!
so why would brooks leave? just for money? he’d go from playing in European tournament to fighting a relegation battle?
Plus the fact that Brooks grew up in Berlin so Hertha is his hometown team. I think he’s been making $2 million or so per year, so they would probably have to offer him considerably more than that to entice him to leave.
To be fair Wolfsburg won trophies in 2015 and came second in the league the same year, it just goes to show that in a span of years how a team can fall from grace. Losing big players didn’t help either, but its conceivable that they can come back up near the top if the right players are bought in etc.
€20 million, if true, is a huge offer for Bundesliga standards.