Argentine attacker Claudio Echeverri is headed back to his Premier League outfit Manchester City early. Bayer Leverkusen head coach confirmed rumors that the 19-year-old’s Bundesliga season-long loan arrangement was to be terminated early whilst speaking at a Friday press conference. Echeverri’s relationship with Leverkusen had long been troubled. The club prevented him from attending the FIFA U20 World Cup in Chile this autumn, yet barely used him.
Echeverri’s brief foray into the Bundesliga ended up producing just six league appearances; only one of which was a start. Echeverri earned two starts among his five Champions League deployments, but was unable to make much of an impression. Echeverri’s lone scorer point in a B04 tricot came via an assist off the bench against Copenhagen on the first UCL matchday. Echeverri forced a late own-goal at 90+2 to help Bayer level up the score 2-2.
“We have agreed with Manchester City that he will return,” Hjulmand remarked on Friday. “We [jointly] arrived at this decision in the last few days. I have a lotto confidence in Claudio, but we have a lot of players in that No. 10 position. The competition is tough. It wasn’t possible to give him more minutes in this context.“
