Hoffenheim – Syndication Server

Ex-USMNT defender Brooks to leave Hoffenheim as free agent

The 31-year-old defender leaves after a season and a half at the Bundesliga club

John Brooks will not return to Hoffenheim when his contract expires next month, the Bundesliga club has announced.

The defender joined Hoffenheim from Benfica in January 2023, and went on to play 39 games for the club.

Brooks stabilized the club’s defense last season, helping it avoid relegation. After beginning this season as a starter, the 31-year-old eventually lost his position as Hoffenheim qualified for the Europa Conference League with a seventh-place finish.

“Jay came to us in a very challenging sporting situation to bring stability to the defense with his enormous experience and personality,” Hoffenheim’s managing director for sport, Alexander Rosen, said in a statement.

“With his qualities and remarkable presence, he had an impact on our game from day one. Over the past year and a half, Jay has played a key role in helping us stay out of the relegation zone last season and qualify for a European competition this term.”

Brooks was a onetime fixture of the U.S. men’s national team, but has not been capped since September 2021.

Overall, Brooks has 45 caps for the USMNT and three goals — including a memorable winning header against Ghana at the 2014 World Cup.

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USMNT coach Callaghan explains Brooks omission from Gold Cup roster

There will be no USMNT return for the 30-year-old this summer

John Brooks will not be making his U.S. men’s national team return this summer.

The Hoffenheim defender was not included in the USMNT’s 23-man roster for the Gold Cup on Monday, meaning his wait for a first cap since September 2021 will continue.

The 30-year-old has been in strong form for Hoffenheim since moving from Benfica in January, becoming a fixture in the club’s lineup and helping it avoid relegation from the Bundesliga.

Brooks declared his interest in a return to the national team in April, saying he was hopeful he could still play a part as the team looked ahead to a home World Cup in 2026.

Speaking to U.S. Soccer’s website, interim head coach B.J. Callaghan addressed Brooks’ absence from a Gold Cup squad that saw 16 of its 23 players come from MLS.

Callaghan affirmed Brooks’ desire to return to the USMNT, but said that he and his staff felt that a full preseason with Hoffenheim would be more beneficial to him than participating in the Gold Cup.

“We had a number of good conversations with John. As a starting point, he reiterated his commitment to the national team program and how much it means to him,” Callaghan said. “He is coming off a season at Hoffenheim where he was a key member of their fight to avoid relegation.

“This summer he will have the chance to participate in a full preseason with them for the first time, so we felt in this particular moment it’s best for him to take advantage of that opportunity and be performing at his highest level in the upcoming season to position himself to contribute to the national team in the future.”

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Che returns to FC Dallas after Hoffenheim declines purchase option

The 19-year-old made just three senior appearances for the club during his loan

Justin Che will return to FC Dallas after Hoffenheim confirmed it has declined its purchase option on the U.S. Under-20 defender.

“Justin and Eduardo [Quaresma] are talented guys with great character who have both repeatedly shown promise,” Hoffenheim sporting director Alexander Rosen told the club’s website.

“However, we agree with the players that they need regular playing time at this stage of their careers to develop continuously. We can’t guarantee them that with us.”

The 19-year-old came up through the FC Dallas academy before he joined Bayern Munich on a brief loan in 2021. After returning to Dallas, where he made 15 MLS appearances in the 2021 season, Che joined Hoffenheim in January 2022 on a year-and-a-half loan.

The defender mostly featured for Hoffenheim’s reserves during his time with the German club, making just three senior appearances over a season and a half.

After he was promoted to Hoffenheim’s senior team permanently in January, Che suffered a muscle injury in February that would spell the end of his time with the club.

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Brooks hoping for USMNT return: ‘I’m not that old yet’

It’s been nearly two years since the most recent of the defender’s 45 caps

John Brooks is not ready to give up on the U.S. national team just yet.

Once a fixture for the USMNT, the defender has not been called up since the fall of 2021. Last summer, then-head coach Gregg Berhalter explained that Brooks did not fit the team’s game model.

After an ill-fated move to Benfica, Brooks has found his feet again in Germany with Hoffenheim. The 30-year-old has started all but two of the club’s Bundesliga matches since joining in January, and has helped the club climb out of the relegation zone.

Speaking to Hoffenheim’s website, Brooks recalled how decided to represent the U.S., his father’s homeland, ahead of Germany, where he was born and raised.

“At the time I was very interested in American culture and wanted to get to know it better,” he said. “I always spoke English with my father and went to an English-speaking school, but apart from that I had a German life. For me, traveling with the national team was also a chance to learn more about my father’s origins.”

Brooks ended up making the 2014 World Cup roster as a 21-year-old. His World Cup debut turned into one of the greatest moments of his career, as he came off the bench and scored a dramatic 86th-minute winner in the team’s opener against Ghana.

“Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps. You can’t even put it into words,” he said. “Somehow the guy from the flank found my head. I’ll never forget that moment.”

On his celebration he added: “I didn’t know what to do after that. I was stunned and just overjoyed.”

Brooks may not have fit Berhalter’s game model, but the potential of a new USMNT coach coming could offer the defender a route back to the national team.

Berhalter is still a candidate for the position, which is being filled on an interim basis by Anthony Hudson. After a tumultuous period following the World Cup, however, new sporting director Matt Crocker could opt to turn the page on the Berhalter era.

Nearly two years after the most recent of his 45 caps, Brooks is still hopeful he’ll get another shot with the USMNT.

“I think if I perform well here I can still be an option for the national team. I’m not that old yet,” he said with a laugh.

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Pellegrino Matarazzo interested in USMNT coaching job

The New Jersey native is currently coaching Hoffenheim

Hoffenheim head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo has said he would be interested in one day coaching the U.S. men’s national team.

Matarazzo, a New Jersey native, won plaudits for his work as Stuttgart head coach — his first full-time managerial role — as he led the club to promotion and then maintained its Bundesliga status for two seasons before he was sacked earlier this campaign.

The 45-year-old was then hired by relegation-threatened Hoffenheim in February and after a rocky start, has now guided the club to three wins and a draw in its past four games to sit 13th in the table.

Speaking to ESPN after a 1-1 draw with table-topping Bayern on Saturday, Matarazzo was asked about the USMNT job and responded that he had a desire to “give back” to the game in his home country.

“We’ll see where this (Hoffenheim) job takes me,” the coach said. “I’m open for many paths, At the moment I’m very happy to be here in the Bundesliga. At some point, I do feel like it’s time to give back to soccer in the States but when that time will be we’ll see.”

Anthony Hudson is currently serving as interim USMNT head coach after Gregg Berhalter’s contract expired at the end of 2022. U.S. Soccer has said that due to its desire to hire a sporting director first, a permanent USMNT coach may not be in place until the end of the summer.

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Bayern Munich suspends Mane one game after Sane altercation

The Senegal international reportedly punched his teammate after a loss to Manchester City

Bayern Munich has announced that Sadio Mané has been suspended one game and fined for what it said was “his misconduct after Bayern’s Champions League match at Manchester City.”

That “misconduct” was widely reported to entail punching his teammate Leroy Sané in the face.

“Sadio Mané, 31, will not be included in the FC Bayern squad for this Saturday’s home match against 1899 Hoffenheim. This is due to his misconduct after Bayern’s Champions League match at Manchester City. Mané will also be given a fine,” a club statement said.

The disagreement between Mané and Sané began late in Bayern’s 3-0 quarterfinal first-leg defeat, when the former ran into space instead of checking to the ball like the latter wanted.

An on-pitch argument escalated after the game in the dressing room. Multiple reports stated that the Senegal star punched the Germany international, with the pair having to be separated by teammates.

Bayern will go into this weekend’s game against Hoffenheim holding a two-point lead atop the Bundesliga table over Borussia Dortmund. The Bavarian side will then return to Champions League action at home on Wednesday as they aim to overturn a three-goal deficit against Pep Guardiola’s side.

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The Americans Abroad Five: Reyna and Dortmund miss their chance

If this was a turning point, things appear to have taken a turn for the worse.

How different could Gio Reyna and Dortmund’s season have turned out had last week gone better?

We won’t know the answer to that for a few weeks, but Dortmund’s past two matches did have the feeling of a turning point.

If so, things appear to have taken a turn for the worse.

On Tuesday, Dortmund was bounced from the Champions League by a Chelsea side coming into their match in relegation form. That was followed by a damaging draw in the derby against Schalke — a team that actually is in a relegation battle.

Reyna got a rare chance to impress against Chelsea and though views on his performance are mixed, the one person whose opinion actually matters doesn’t seem to have rated him highly.

Let’s kick off the Five with a look at a disheartening week for Reyna and his club.