“Keven is a good guy who gave his all during preseason. Since the likelihood of regular game time here hasn’t changed, we wanted to give Keven this opportunity,” says chairman Jochen Saier. “With his loan move to Bochum, Keven is returning to a familiar environment and won’t need any time to get up to speed. We wish him as much success as possible and hope he has a great time working at Castroper Straße.”

Monday Ozan Kabak named in the Team of the Round TSG centre-back Ozan Kabak has been...

The 25-year-old defender has joined Premier League side West Ham United.

Despite Kevin Behrens getting Union’s UEFA Europa Conference League group stage record off the mark, Union Berlin came away without points against Slavia Prague. The Czech champions proved strong opposition for Urs Fischer’s side, winning 3-1 at the Eden Arena. Alexander Bah put the Czechs ahead after a quarter of an hour with a clean finish from a corner kick. The first half got worse for the Köpenick club as Paul Jaeckel was shown his second booking and dismissed before the 45 minutes were out. Fischer and his players dug out a remarkable response with 10 players for around half an hour as Union dragged themselves back into the game. Sheraldo Becker delivered a teasing cross for Kevin Behrens to score the first goal of the group stage after coming off the bench. The intensity and the numbers eventually caught up despite the 4,000 in attendance at the Eden Arena from Berlin. Jan Kuchta put the hosts ahead on 84 minutes before a sucker punch was added from Ivan Schranz two minutes later to give the Czechs a winning start to the campaign.

Guardiola preferred Nathan Ake and Rico Lewis in the build-up to Cancelo’s departure, which was understandable given his form, but also surprising given his impact over the previous two seasons.

Boris Rupert reporting from SIGNAL IDUNA PARK

Virkus: “The team wants to and is able to fight” Roland Virkus, Borussia’s managing director for...

On Monday evening, Niclas Füllkrug received the award of SPORT BILD’s “Rising Star of the Year” for 2023. The 30-year-old accepted the trophy personally at the Hamburger Fischauktionshalle, announcing on stage in his speech: “I benefit a lot from our attacking style of play. We always set out to press high and win the ball in the final third of the pitch – I just try to get myself in the best possible position and score a goal or two.”

Okay, maybe a lot sick of it, but bringing in Cancelo to play a part in high profile matches was part of the plan, right?

Together for the region: that was the motto that TSG Hoffenheim used to send a strong sign of their affiliation with their home region during their home match against SC Freiburg. During the Bundesliga games in the PreZero Arena in the 2023/24 season, the municipal coats of arms from the region will be repeatedly displayed on the LED hoardings around the pitch.