Max Kruse will no longer play for Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg. That's what head coach Niko Kovac said at least after the 1-0 win away at Eintracht Frankfurt. What happens to Kruse now? And is there something going on with Werder?

Actually, the topic has been ticked off for about two weeks. At the end of August, Werder's head of scouting Clemens Fritz said: "Of course he would do us good with his quality, but that's all there is to it. That's not an issue for us." The denials were preceded by flattery and flirtations by Kruse and Werders officials. There was almost no week in the summer transfer window in which Kruse was not somehow an issue with the green-whites. But in the end, a change would not have worked for financial reasons alone.

And now? The fact is that Kruse will spend the next few weeks and months in the stands in Wolfsburg. "We didn't see any impulses from Max that he could help the team. The club is above everything and that's why we made the decision together," Kovac explained the decision. But it is also a fact that Kruse, who switched from Union Berlin to Wolfsburg for five million euros in winter, should earn around 3.8 million euros a year according to information from the Bild newspaper. The 34-year-old's contract runs until the end of the season. Hard to imagine that the wolves let the footballer stew in the stands for so long.

Therefore, a contract termination in winter including a severance payment does not seem unlikely at the moment. Then Kruse would be without a club and could switch to a new club without a fee. Whether it would be Werder seems open. Due to the flirts in the past few weeks, this is at least one of the many possible variants. An engagement in the USA, where his son lives, could not be ruled out either.

One thing is clear: it will be exciting again about Kruse...

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This article was originally published on 90min.com/de as Kruse-Aus in Wolfsburg: Werder knocking again in winter? released.