Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 8y

Champions League needed to keep Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez - Bayer

Bayer Leverkusen CEO Michael Schade has told Rheinische Post the club must get into next season's Champions League if they are to keep star striker Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez.

Leverkusen, without the injured Hernandez, won at Darmstadt 98 on Saturday and are in third place -- a position that would guarantee them qualification for the group phase of the Champions League.

Mexico international Hernandez, 27, joined Leverkusen from Manchester United in the summer and has since scored 22 goals in 26 appearances.

Asked whether it would be difficult to convince him to stay for another year should Leverkusen fail to reach the Champions League, Schade said: "That could very well be, but if we reach Champions League we have a very good chance that he stays."

The CEO, who said Hernandez had been in talks with a Premier League before moving to Germany, added: "He wants to be in the spotlight, and wants the people in Mexico see him scoring goals.

"At Bayer he plays in a team which enables him to do that. He profits from our style of play, and from his teammates. He helps us, but we also help him."

Hernandez could be out for three weeks after limping off in Leverkusen's DFB-Pokal defeat to Werder Bremen this week.

Coach Rogers Schmidt told reporters at his prematch news conference ahead of the weekend meeting with Darmstadt that the striker had sustained "a minor torn muscle fibre in his left gluteal muscle."

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