{"id":66446,"date":"2026-08-04T10:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/66446\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T10:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:14:11","slug":"96-goalscorer-in-172-games-a-spectacular-return-for-30-million-is-looming-at-bayer-leverkusen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/66446\/","title":{"rendered":"96 goalscorer in 172 games! A spectacular return for 30 million is looming at Bayer Leverkusen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-testid=\"article-teaser\">Moussa Diaby once brought Bayer Leverkusen a huge transfer fee. He is now said to be on the verge of a return to the Werkself.<\/p>\n<p>Bild reported this on Tuesday. According to the report, the lightning-quick 27-year-old no longer feels comfortable at Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia and wants to return to Bayer 04.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/34f398edd8e4463892abf6119c7c756a.gif\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" alt=\"\" data-fco-pixel-tracker-url=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/34f398edd8e4463892abf6119c7c756a.gif\" data-fco-pixel-tracker-type=\"vg-wort\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Diaby enjoyed the best spell of his career in Leverkusen from 2019 to 2023. In 172 competitive appearances, he delivered 49 goals and 47 assists before joining Aston Villa for \u20ac55 million. After just one year, 54 competitive appearances and 21 goal involvements, he moved to Saudi Arabia for \u20ac60 million, where he has at least managed 31 assists in 71 matches.<\/p>\n<p>Diaby would probably cost Bayer Leverkusen \u20ac30 million<\/p>\n<p>That adventure in the Saudi Pro League, certainly a hugely lucrative one financially, now appears to be nearing its end. The report says contact with Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes was never broken off. Negotiations over a return are even said to be well advanced.<\/p>\n<p>Bayer would probably have to fork out \u20ac30 million for Diaby, who is also said to be attracting interest from Inter Milan and Benfica Lisbon. The winger is reportedly willing to accept a massive pay cut to return to the Rhineland. At Al Ittihad, he is said to earn \u20ac10 million net. His contract runs until 2029.<\/p>\n<p>Seven years ago, Leverkusen paid Paris Saint-Germain \u20ac15 million for the winger, who would be an ideal fit for new coach Carles Martinez&#8217;s 4-3-3 system and could form an impressive wing partnership with new signing Afonso Moreira, signed from Lyon for \u20ac29.5 million.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"fco-image__image\" alt=\"Moussa Diaby\"   loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/06.gif\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1600 \/ 900;width:100%;height:100%\"\/>Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moussa Diaby once brought Bayer Leverkusen a huge transfer fee. He is now said to be on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21161],"tags":[50044,21182,1147,846,50045,37920,3354],"class_list":["post-66446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bayer","tag-al-ittihad","tag-bayer","tag-bayer-leverkusen","tag-bundesliga","tag-m-diaby","tag-saudi-pro-league","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}