Bundesliga

BERLIN — Bayern Munich have decided to end their collaboration with coach Thomas Tuchel at the end of the current season despite a contract to 2025, the club said on Wednesday.

Bayern lost their last three games in all competitions, including a 3-0 defeat to league leaders Bayer Leverkusen and have now dropped eight points behind them in the Bundesliga.

They were also beaten 1-0 by Lazio in last week's Champions League first leg and now risk going without any silverware for the first season in more than a decade.

United States men’s national team forward Brenden Aaronson scored an 84th minute winner for Union Berlin in a 1-0 victory vs. Hoffenheim on Saturday.

The goal will come as a massive sigh of relief for Aaronson who was on a tremendously long goal drought. The last time the 23-year-old forward had scored for a club was August 2022 against Chelsea while playing with Leeds.

Aaronson is on loan with Union Berlin and has only started five Bundesliga games this season. The American is typically used as a late substitute.

LEVERKUSEN — Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen outplayed champions Bayern Munich for a 3-0 victory on Saturday that sent them five points clear at the top of the league and put them firmly in charge of the title race.

Goals from Josip Stanisic, Alejandro Grimaldo and Jeremie Frimpong made sure of the three points as Leverkusen, who have never won a Bundesliga title, and stretched their unbeaten run to 31 matches across all competitions this season.

Jordan Pefok’s recent form to start 2024 deserves recognition and an international call-up in March if he remains consistent. 

The 26-year-old provided an assist in Borussia Monchengladbach’s 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich on Saturday marking his third goal contribution in his last four Bundesliga games.

GLADBACH TAKE THE LEAD OVER BAYERN AT THE ALLIANZ pic.twitter.com/hEdS4HWckF

United States men’s national team talent Gio Reyna has been linked to several clubs across Europe as he seeks playing time away from Borussia Dortmund. There were many reports on where he could go but, in the end, a Gio Reyna Nottingham Forest loan is the outcome.

Reyna will be loaned to Forest until the end of the 2023-24 season, however the Premier League club won’t be given the option to permanently buy. Instead, the 21-year-old has signed a new contract with Dortmund that runs through 2026.

Gio Reyna Nottingham Forest loan

DOHA — Clubs worldwide spent a record $9.63 billion on international transfers in 2023, an increase of nearly 50% compared to 2022, world soccer's governing body FIFA said in its Global Transfer Report published on Tuesday.

After transfer spending fell in 2020 and 2021 due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, outlays on players have only increased, with last year's total spend seeing an increase of 48.1% compared to 2022.

A Gio Reyna Nottingham Forest loan move could be on the table as the United States men’s national team attacking midfielder seeks playing time.

Reyna has seen miniscule action with Borussia Dortmund this season as manager Edin Terzic has opted to use basically anyone not named Reyna. The 21-year-old American has only started one Bundesliga game for Dortmund in the 2023-24 campaign and is only used as a late substitute.

Reyna’s next destination could be a completely new kind of challenge as he’s in talks with a loan move to Premier League outfit Nottingham Forest.

Jordan Pefok hit the back of the net once again on Sunday, scoring the only goal in Borussia Monchengladbach’s 2-1 home loss vs. Augsburg in Matchday 18 of the Bundesliga.

The D.C. native has been having nothing short of an impressive start to his loan spell with The Foals, becoming one of the team’s top scorers with just a short amount of minutes on the pitch.

BERLIN — Champions League club Union Berlin on Wednesday parted ways with coach Urs Fischer following a nine-game losing run in the Bundesliga that has left them in last place and appointed the first woman as assistant coach in Bundesliga history.

They appointed youth coach Marco Grote as the interim coach with Marie-Louise Eta as his assistant, making the 32-year-old the first female coach at a Bundesliga club.

Eta is a former professional player and Champions League winner who retired in 2018 and who played most of her career under her maiden name of Bagehorn.