{"id":4160,"date":"2025-08-12T10:02:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T10:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/12\/ill-leave-the-defender-behind-for-breakfast-leberkusen-signs-young-dutch-winger-ernest-pok\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T10:02:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T10:02:56","slug":"ill-leave-the-defender-behind-for-breakfast-leberkusen-signs-young-dutch-winger-ernest-pok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/12\/ill-leave-the-defender-behind-for-breakfast-leberkusen-signs-young-dutch-winger-ernest-pok\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;I&#8217;ll leave the defender behind for breakfast&#8221;: Leberkusen signs young Dutch winger Ernest Pok"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>LEBAKUSENS, Germany (AP) &#8212; Bayer LeBAKUSENS signs Arizona Alkmaar speedy young winger Ernest Pok on Tuesday to strengthen Dutch ties under new coach <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">Erik Ten Hag<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Pok was able to play both on the wings and his pace attracted attention in the Europa League last season. Born in Germany, he reached the semi-finals of the European Under 21 Championship against the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old arrives on a five-year contract. Leverkusen has announced his signature on social media with an image of the character Lightning McQueen from the film Cars and an edit of a clip from Poku dribbling past defenders.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll leave the defender behind for breakfast,&#8221; Pok said in the video. &#8220;Faster than fast. Faster than quick. I&#8217;m Ernest Pok.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He has already played four games in the 2025-26 season, with Alkmaar taking part in the qualifying round for the Europa Conference League and setting up two more games with two more goals thanks to the start of the Dutch League last week.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of HAG&#8217;s first competitive game as Leverkusen&#8217;s coach at the German Cup on Friday, Poku will join Dutch goalkeeper Mark Flekken as a new signature. The club also brought American forward Mariktilman from Dutch club PSV Eindhoven.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s part of a wider rebuild after leaving to players in Lebaxen&#8217;s 2023-24 season, including Florian Wiltz, Jeremy Fripon and Granite Zaka. <\/p>\n<p>Due to the scale of change, striker Patrick Thicke said last month that he <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">I wasn&#8217;t expecting<\/span> Leverkusen can compete for the Bundesliga title without any important signatures.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP Soccer: <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bayer-leverkusen-ernest-poku-ten-hag-dbeb751afe6397825dc21c62ee3aefb8\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LEBAKUSENS, Germany (AP) &#8212; Bayer LeBAKUSENS signs Arizona Alkmaar speedy young winger Ernest Pok on Tuesday to strengthen Dutch ties under new coach Erik Ten Hag. Pok was able to play both on the wings and his pace attracted attention in the Europa League last season. Born in Germany, he reached the semi-finals of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;I&#039;ll leave the defender behind for breakfast&quot;: Leberkusen signs young Dutch winger Ernest Pok - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/12\/ill-leave-the-defender-behind-for-breakfast-leberkusen-signs-young-dutch-winger-ernest-pok\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;I&#039;ll leave the defender behind for breakfast&quot;: Leberkusen signs young Dutch winger Ernest Pok - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LEBAKUSENS, Germany (AP) &#8212; Bayer LeBAKUSENS signs Arizona Alkmaar speedy young winger Ernest Pok on Tuesday to strengthen Dutch ties under new coach Erik Ten Hag. 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