Two years ago, Robert Andrich first caught the eye of football fans across Germany. At the home Euros, he started every game for Julian Nagelsmann's side, a surprise inclusion who stood out with his pink hair and his uncompromising tackling. He did the dirty work for Toni Kroos and Ilkay Gündogan, covering for the artists and ball distributors as Germany went out to eventual European champions Spain in the quarter-finals.
Now he is no longer in demand for the national team, and Nagelsmann did not call him up for the World Cup this summer. His club prospects had also grown increasingly bleak. After Bayer's disappointing sixth-place finish left them outside the Champions League, Carles Martinez arrived on the Rhine as the new coach and quickly made it clear he was not counting on Andrich.
In mid-August, Martinez took the captain's armband off him and handed it to Edmond Tapsoba. "At the moment it is the case that, in this midfield position, he is initially playing more of a secondary role," said Martinez, adding: "At least now he knows where he stands. That way he can prepare himself for what could be best for him and best for us." What would be best for everyone involved from the coach's point of view was therefore clear to everyone: a separation.
The situation recalls Leon Goretzka's at Bayern Munich in the summer of 2024, when coach Vincent Kompany and Bayern's hierarchy likewise offered him little more than a place on the bench in a bid to push him towards the exit.
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Then came the first intervention from his wife Alicia. After Andrich lost the captaincy, she posted a single sentence about her husband's demotion, fittingly in Spanish so coaches such as Carles Martinez could understand it without any problem: "Karma will sort that out." She later denied on social media that this was what she had meant, but that only made the issue bigger.
Andrich situation no nearer at Frankfurt and Leipzig
Robert Andrich was just as unwilling to accept the new secondary role as his wife apparently was, so Bundesliga clubs such as Eintracht Frankfurt and RB Leipzig were said to have sensed their chance and enquired about the 31-year-old. Before last weekend, however, the matter had still not become truly concrete, which meant Carles Martinez's press conference ahead of the Bundesliga opener in Elversberg offered fresh talking points.
When asked whether he had spoken to Andrich about his role for the season, the coach replied in halting English: "Honestly, I don't speak with him." A secondary role on offer and no direct line to the coach. As recently as last Friday, everything pointed to Andrich making a swift exit.
Then Bayer opened their Bundesliga campaign in Elversberg and the visitors were 2-0 down before ten minutes had even been played on the way to a 3-2 defeat. That prompted Alicia Andrich's second intervention: she liked the kicker post "Petkov makes history: first Bundesliga goal for Elversberg", before removing the like again a few hours later. Without Andrich, who spent the full 90 minutes on the bench, things could hardly have gone worse for Leverkusen at the promoted side, and his wife apparently took at least brief satisfaction from that.
Will Robert Andrich be needed again at Bayer?
Whether the disappointing defeat triggered the turnaround that the Leverkusen hierarchy carried out with Andrich shortly afterwards will remain unanswered, but that seems a fair assumption. There was also the departure of Exequiel Palacios from Bayer's defensive midfield to Premier League newcomers Ipswich. With Kennet Eichhorn another central option sidelined for longer and Equi Fernandez unable to build on his strong pre-season in Elversberg, Robert Andrich was suddenly back in demand. "He is here. He is a leader in our team," said Carles Martinez after the defeat. Suddenly, "leader" sounded very different to "secondary role".
Getty ImagesAt the same time, the coach also insisted he had phrased his comment about not speaking to Andrich incorrectly: "Yes, I said that I don't speak with Robert. The sentence should correctly have been: I have not yet spoken with him again since Exequiel Palacios left," he clarified on Saturday. Then on Monday came the report from kicker that, after a spectacular U-turn, Robert Andrich would not be leaving the club after all and would stay at Bayer.
Whether, as Alicia Andrich announced, the much-cited karma drove the rethink is doubtful. In football, things can change very quickly, and Robert Andrich could be the next proof of that. After several months on the bench at Bayern Munich, Leon Goretzka forced his way back into the spotlight in late autumn 2024. Last season he was suddenly a regular starter for Bayern again before now moving to Aston Villa, two years after, like Robert Andrich now, he had already been verbally shown the door.