Kicker gave J. Leszczynski an 8/10 for his move to Borussia Mönchengladbach, one of the club’s best individual marks in a summer window that was ranked worst in the Bundesliga. Only Daniel Batz was rated higher inside the squad. For a club sitting on 4 points after nine Bundesliga rounds, that is not the sort of exception you expect to find in the transfer verdicts.
Gladbach’s summer ranking
The broader judgement on Borussia Mönchengladbach was bleak. Kicker’s usual autumn review placed the club bottom of the Bundesliga transfer rankings, while Freiburg were first and Werder and BVB followed behind them. That is the backdrop that makes Leszczyński’s rating stand out so sharply.
Tomasz Urban, the Eleven Sport journalist and German football expert, said on social media that amid the poor business done by Scheöder at Gladbach, Leszczyński’s transfer was rated highly at 8 on a scale of 1-10, with only Daniel Batz above him in the club. He also said Gladbach were the worst-rated team in the league.
The fee and early minutes
The positive review is not built on nothing. Reports say Gladbach paid €3 million for Legia Warszawa's former player in July, and he had already made three Bundesliga appearances, including two starts, before his knee injury in mid-October sidelined him.
That early spell explains why the mark is a lot more than a token nod. At 19, Leszczyński did enough in a short run of games to register on the right side of Kicker’s assessment, even while the team around him was being pulled apart by a miserable start to the season.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →
