Patrik Schick: "I want to stay at RB Leipzig with Julian Nagelsmann"
Patrik Schick has had a fantastic season at RB Leipzig on loan from Roma and will stay with the Bundesliga club to finish the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League campaign. And if it was Schick's choice, with the work of head coach Julian Nagelsmann influencing him, there's only one place he wants to be next season.
Schick played the perfect supporting role for top-scoring Timo Werner in this season, with 10 goals and two assists from his 22 Bundesliga appearances to help Leipzig finish third in the German top-flight.
Werner has departed for English Premier League side Chelsea and will not play for Leipzig in the remainder of the Champions League, with Leipzig set for a first-ever appearance in the quarter-finals against Atletico Madrid. There was no doubt, however, around whether Schick would remain at the club to play for the remainder of the campaign.
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"Sure, it's the Champions League after all," Schick told SportBild. "There was no doubt for me. This year, with the other conditions and only one game at a time, it's a little easier to get through. The chance to reach the final is there.
"Atletico is a great club. We expect a difficult game. I think whoever scores the first goal has a good chance of winning the game. Because Atletico plays a little more defensively."
For the Czech Republic international, Leipzig has gone from being a temporary home to one that the 24-year-old striker now wants to call a permanent home. After the highest-scoring domestic season of his career since his days with Sampdoria in 2016/17, Schick says he has Nagelsmann to thank.
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"We play attractive football, I like that," Schick said. "I'm here for Julian too. When I moved to Leipzig last summer, he told me that he had actually wanted to bring me to Hoffenheim. I became more variable in my game under him."
However, Schick is only on loan from his parent club Roma in the Italian Serie A. A season-long loan deal which will expire come the end of the Champions League, but Schick would like to stay in Leipzig and the Bundesliga is the choice was his own.
"I want to stay here the most! We played a great season," Schick said. "I believe in the team, in the coach's philosophy. I like his way of playing football. I think we have the quality to play for the Bundesliga title and we play in the Champions League, so everything fits."
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