He s obviously the big name they throw around in terms of who is going to make the next move, Friend said. Overall the Bundesliga, let s probably remove the top two in Bayern and Dortmund. You look at what Kai Havertz did at Leverkusen. Close to €100m move. That just shows you don t have to be a top club to achieve those transfer fees.
I think if you re Gladbach you re looking at a player like that. He has a pretty hefty price tag on him. As these players move on, whether it s Havertz, Werner etc it will be important that they have the success with the price tags they have on them. When I was playing, maybe you had a guy moving for five-10m outside the top two clubs and it was very important they had success in those leagues to substantiate the price tags that league is demanding.
He certainly comes with a price tag that would eliminate most clubs. I know Gladbach won t stop him from moving but it will come with a major transfer fee and certainly there would be clubs watching who would be willing to pay. The rest is a bit of luck. Make sure he has a strong season and stays healthy.
Friend played with two highly rated prospects during his time at Gladbach German duo Marco Reus and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Attacking star Reus spent three years at Gladbach before returning to boyhood club Dortmund in 2012, having been released six years earlier, while goalkeeper Ter Stegen emerged from Gladbach s youth system in 2010 and was eventually snapped up by LaLiga giants Barcelona in 2014.
Friend added: By day one in training, you saw he [Reus] was something special. What stood out was his character. At the time, he maybe seemed like a hotshot with his character but he absolutely knew he had it from day one. An 18-year-old with that kind of confidence is almost a differentiator. He had the talent but the confidence, he didn t really give a s***. He knew what he wanted. There was no doubt he had the talent but it certainly takes more than that.
With Ter Stegen, I would say even more so. He was 17 or so when I was there. Third or fourth keeper when he first started coming into practice. We would joke in the changing room and call him Oliver Kahn as a joke because he presented himself very confidently, his chest was out, his head was high as an 18-year-old kid coming into practice. I was blown away with the confidence he had, especially as a goalkeeper. He had so much confidence and work ethic. He was always the first one there and last to leave training.
