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Bayer Leverkusen: 'Kiessling staying put'

Chuck PenfoldDecember 15, 2015

Bayer Leverkusen have said Stefan Kiessling will not be going anywhere during the January transfer window. There had been indications that the former national team player might seek a move to get more playing time.

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Fußball Bundesliga Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach
Image: Getty Images/Bongarts/S. Steinbach

Officials at the Rhineland club confirmed on Tuesday that following a meeting between Leverkusen's sporting director, Rudi Völler and Kiessling's agent, Jonas Boldt, it had been decided that the 31-year-old striker would be staying put.

"For me, there was no question of this (a transfer) even beforehand," Leverkusen's managing director, Michael Schade told the DPA news agency. Kiessling's current contract runs through June 30, 2017, and according to the mass-circulation newspaper "Bild," Völler would like to extend Kiessling's contract beyond that.

Kiessling, who has been at the club since 2006, had raised the possibility of changing clubs during the winter transfer window due to dissatisfaction about playing time. In the first 16 games of the season, Kiessling has made just eight starts, but his most recent was his most impressive.

On Saturday, Kiessling played alongside the Mexican, Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, who has scored 17 goals in his first 20 competitive matches this season. The two worked well together, with Kiessling scording two goals and setting up two of Chicharito's three goals as Leverkusen crushed Borussia Mönchengladbach 5-0.

This forced coach Roger Schmidt to revisit an earlier assertion that the pair don't complement each other.

"This (the two playing as a duo) good have a big future," Schmidt said.