Leeds United defender Maximilian Wober is close to agreeing a move to Bundesliga side Schalke.

Wober, 28, is expected to reach an agreement to terminate his Leeds contract before joining the German club on a free transfer.

The Austrian has already travelled to Germany, where he has completed the first part of his medical.

Wober joined Leeds for €12million (£10m) from Red Bull Salzburg in 2023, but has since made fewer than 30 first-team appearances for the club.

This will be a return to Germany for Wober, who has spent two of the last three seasons on loan in the Bundesliga, playing for Borussia Monchengladbach in 2023-24 and Werder Bremen in 2025-26. While the first loan was a relative success, the second was badly disrupted by injury, limiting the Austrian to just two substitute appearances in the Bundesliga and playing for a combined 35 minutes.

An inevitable exit

The imminent termination of Wober’s Leeds contract brings the curtain down on a very difficult three and a half years in his career. He was one of the few players to emerge from the wreckage of 2023’s relegation with any credit, but has done nothing since then to preserve any kind of legacy at Elland Road.

Wober escaped the Championship in 2023-24 with a loan to Gladbach, but found nobody giving him an exit route the following year. Injury scuppered any part he could play in 2024-25’s 100-point Championship title, but even when he was fit, Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk were too good to be supplanted.

Leeds fans expected Wober would be sold last summer, but instead another loan was arranged.

There was one year remaining on his contract in West Yorkshire. Wober had little transfer value in the market after two years of very little football and Leeds will be pleased to draw a line under his time with them.

Meanwhile, Leeds have indicated their most recent offer to Southampton for midfielder Shea Charles is their best and final bid. They remain happy to take on the Northern Ireland international, if Southampton accept their offer, but appear happy to move on to other targets if necessary.

Schalke are, by membership, one of the biggest clubs in Germany, but spent the last three years in the second division. They are newly promoted to the Bundesliga for the 2026-27 season and have been active in the transfer market, adding to a squad that already includes veteran Bosnian forward Edin Dzeko and former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, and is coached by Miron Muslic, formerly of Plymouth Argyle.

Wober will become the fifth signing of the summer, after Satoshi Tanaka, Kevin Muller, Junior Adamu and, most notably, Robin Gosens, the former Germany international who has joined on loan from Fiorentina.

Days after agreeing to a monster contract extension, Victor Wembanyama reminisced about the last three years of his NBA career. The highlights. The multiple accolades. The latest postseason push that helped make the extension an easy decision.

His basketball profile continues to grow. On and off the court.

On July 10, the San Antonio Spurs announced that Wembanyama agreed to a five-year, $252 million extension to remain with the team. The deal begins with the 2027-28 season and starts at 25 percent of the salary cap — even though Wembanyama was eligible for a supermax deal worth 30 percent of the cap.

In an exclusive with The Athletic, Wembanyama offered his thoughts of how his new contract can help the Spurs maintain its championship contention window for years to come. Saving the Spurs approximately $50 million over the life of his extension was about maximizing the opportunity to remain title contenders, as cap savings could allow the team flexibility in trades or to sign players to add to or maintain its depth.

“We have a good team, we had a very good playoff run, and we had a very good regular season. But what’s even better and greater is our potential,” Wembanyama said during an interview for NBA 2K27, as he was announced as one of the cover athletes for the popular video game series. “The reality of today’s NBA is that often, the potential of teams is not fulfilled because of money. I just want to make sure it’s never our case.”

Wembanyama, a two-time NBA All-Star, was the 2024 NBA Rookie of the Year and the first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year winner this past season. The 7-foot-4 do-it-all player averaged career highs of 25 points and 11.5 rebounds and led the league with 3.1 blocks per game in reaching his first NBA Finals. Wembanyama received First-Team All-NBA honors and finished third in NBA MVP voting behind Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Nikola Jokić.

While appreciative of how quickly the various accomplishments come, to Wembanyama, they’re actually expected. The 22-year-old has built a stellar basketball resume playing professionally in France, and his game has matured into a level that puts him among the NBA’s elite. He’s built a reputation where he’s admired by many and even became a bit of a villain during the playoffs due to a number of flagrant fouls and an ejection.

Being on the 2K27 cover is considered a “big milestone” to him, but like the other accolades, it was anticipated.

“Just like every achievement in my career, I wish it happened sooner,” he said. “It’s all happening very quick, but I am not satisfied and I want it to happen quicker. It’s definitely a big milestone, something good. That’s done.”

Wembanyama forgoing a supermax extension can equate to roughly $10 million from the Spurs’ cap each season if Wembanyama were to be named to an All-NBA team or repeat as Defensive Player of the Year in 2026-27. As the team looks to upgrade players like Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper from their rookie deals in the next couple of years, the cap number will be important. Per The Athletic’s John Hollinger, keeping Wembanyama at 25 percent of the max “would also allow the Spurs to use their nontaxpayer midlevel exception in the 2027 offseason and still remain below the first apron, something that otherwise would have been impossible without trading a rotation piece.”

At 7-foot-4 with an 8-foot wingspan, Wembanyama is seen — on the court and in gaming — as something of a cheat code. He has the shooting and ballhandling abilities of a guard. He’s blocked 3-point attempts. And with every game, his confidence grows.

And the more he does, the more people talk.

“I see it, and I feel it with people around me,” he said. “Whether it’s fans or interactions, even haters, you know it’s everywhere. But mentally, it’s not taking a toll on me, I’m just living my career.

“I hear it the most with journalists and media. But, yeah, it comes with it. I guess it’s only a good thing.”

Being on the cover of a premier basketball simulation game, one of the best-selling video games on the market, will bring more attention to Wembanyama from basketball fans, as well as gamers who might not watch the sport closely but are fanatical about gameplay. NBA 2K26 — which featured Gilgeous-Alexander as a cover athlete — was the No. 1 selling sports game last year and No. 2 overall video game, so he is aware of the potential ascension as the worlds of basketball and popular culture fuse.

Wembanyama joined a list of 2K cover athletes that also includes Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and Dončić. He played the game growing up with his brother and uncle in France. He fondly recalls when EuroLeague teams were added to the game for 2K14.

“I know it means a lot culturally, too,” Wembanyama said. “It’s hard to realize for me that I’m taking more and more space, more real estate in the world of basketball, in what basketball means, in professional basketball.”

The Commonwealth Games 2026 are happening between 23 July and 2 August 2026 in Glasgow, with 215 golds up for grabs.

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