Boller joins Linz ASK

Sporting director Simon Rolfes believes the move to Linz is the right step for the Germany U19 player. "Jan has the opportunity to gain experience there. We will closely follow his development and we have the option to bring him back here."

Jan Boller, who has played for the Black and Reds since 2013, penned a pro contract with this year's Champions League participants in January 2019. The man from Siegen was in the senior squad for the first time for the DFB Cup game against Heidenheim last season but he mainly played for the U19s in the Bundesliga West. Last term he played in all 26 league games for the full 90 minutes as captain.

He also was very much in demand for Germany youth teams. Boller earned 15 caps for the Germany U17s and was a regular in central defence at the 2017 European Championships in Croatia and the World Cup in the same year in India. In 2016, he played alongside Kai Havertz for the Bayer 04 U17 team that went on to beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the final of the U17 German Championships.

Contract with Kucz terminated

Bayer 04 and Tomasz Kucz have parted company. The contract with the Poland youth international, that was originally due to run to 30 June 2020, has been terminated by mutual agreement. Kucz joined Leverkusen from Polonia Warsaw in the summer of 2015. The youth keeper went on to make 36 appearances in the U19 Bundesliga West and twice played in the DFB Youth Cup as well as nine times in the UEFA Youth League. In January 2019, Kucz went out on a six-month loan to Slovakian top-flight club DAC Dunajska Streda.