Borussia Monchengladbach sporting director Max Eberl has admitted that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic means he cannot rule out losing Inter target Matthias Ginter next summer.
The Germany international is into the final year of his contract and has drawn interest from the Nerazzurri, alongside teammate Denis Zakaria, as Inter sound out free agents next year.
In an interview with Gladbachlive.de, Eberl insisted that the club wanted to retain key players such as Ginter and Zakaria but had taken a considerable financial hit after a year without fans, limiting what they could offer star players.
“Our intention is to extend the contracts of these two players. Nothing happened in the summer of 2021 for either player for a variety of reasons. The transfer market has changed for the whole world,” Eberl declared.
“Before the coronavirus, the question about Zakaria would not have been whether he could leave, but where he would go. But clubs no longer have all these resources so this is a situation in which we have great players, who have spent five years with us, and in the end they will leave us free.
“In this case we have to act differently. From my point of view there will be more free agents on the market. Such impacts are much more striking for us than for other clubs. The fact that fans can now come to the stadium allows us to make an offer to Matthias Ginter. But it doesn’t allow us to buy a player for a lot of money.”
Ginter joined Gladbach from fellow Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund in 2017 and has gone on to make 159 appearances for the club, scoring 10 goals.
A Germany international since 2014, the 27-year-old has earned 45 caps and was part of the World Cup-winning squad in that year.
