Christian Kofane says his attention remains firmly on Bayer Leverkusen despite reported interest from Arsenal, insisting he is focused on football rather than speculation about his future.
The 20-year-old joined Leverkusen from Albacete last summer and made a significant impact during his first season at the club. He was directly involved in 13 goals across 44 appearances, scoring seven times and providing six assists.
Only Patrik Schick, Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia had more direct goal involvements for Leverkusen last season. Schick and Grimaldo each contributed to 26 goals, while Garcia was involved in 16, although all three played substantially more minutes than Kofane.
Kofane also made history in the Champions League. He became Leverkusen’s youngest-ever scorer in the competition at the age of 19 years and 67 days when he scored in a 1-1 draw with PSV last October.
His performances have reportedly attracted the attention of Arsenal, but Kofane said he has not been in direct contact with the Premier League champions.
“No, that didn’t reach me,” he told Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger.
“My agent apparently spoke to one or two people. I myself didn’t have any contact with anyone.”
The Cameroon-born forward was also surprised earlier this year when his agent described him as a “€100m player”.
“Wow. No, I didn’t know that,” added Kofane.
“You clearly don’t know me: I don’t concern myself with social media and things like that.
“My agent can say whatever he wants, and the media can say whatever they want about it. I’m here to play football.
“At the moment I’m focused on playing football. But now that you’ve brought it up [his future], I suppose I’ll have to start thinking about it.”
Kofane remains under contract at Leverkusen until June 2029 and has continued his encouraging form during pre-season, scoring twice so far.
Leverkusen are preparing for their final two friendly fixtures against Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United before beginning their competitive campaign with a DFB-Pokal meeting with Wehen on 22 August.
Their first Bundesliga fixture of the 2026-27 season will follow one week later, when they face newly promoted Elversberg.