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It was only a couple of weeks ago that Leeds fans who spend too much time on the internet were bemoaning a botched transfer window in which we weren’t going to sign anybody (ignoring the players we’d already signed).
Now Anton Stach is arrival number six, and with goalkeeper Lucas Perri on the way too (plus Jonny Howson!) it’s all coming up Milhouse. Stach is the latest name plucked from the Football Manager transfer filter of six foot tall and 26 years old, but what else is there to know about our latest big lad?
I quite like that Stach isn’t some video game regen who has spent his career being passed around the academies of Europe’s elite, a la Ian Poveda. He had to establish himself as a pro during some nomadic years at the start of his career after leaving Werder Bremen’s youth ranks, toiling through his country’s lower divisions by appearing for various clubs in the fifth, fourth and second tiers of German football.
A season at Yosuke Ideguchi’s former home Greuther Fürth resulted in promotion to the Bundesliga, but Stach didn’t stick around, earning a move to Mainz, who he helped to back to back top-half finishes in Germany’s top flight. During those two seasons at Mainz, he won his two senior international caps, prompting Hoffenheim to pay €11m for his signature in 2023 with the money Leeds had given them for Georgi Rutter earlier that year.
A 7th-place finish in his first season meant Hoffenheim qualified for the Europa League, with Stach scoring against Tottenham, but their Bundesliga form faltered as manager Pellegrino Matarazzo was sacked and the team finished just three points above the relegation play-off places. Enter Leeds United.
Stach doesn’t have any history with Leeds United per se, but he’s joining a squad featuring plenty of familiar faces. He was part of the Germany Under-21 squad that won the 2021 Euros, which Lukas Nmecha finished as the tournament’s top scorer, and also appeared off the bench for the senior team alongside Nmecha in a 5-2 win over Italy in which Wilf Gnonto scored.
He’s also made numerous appearances against Sebastiaan Bornauw, Ilia Gruev, Brenden Aaronson and Jaka Bijol. Presumably they ended each game swapping shirts and chatting about how much they’d love to one day move to Beeston.
Stach comes from an impressive sporting family. His two sisters have represented Germany at basketball and his dad, Matthias, was a decent tennis player, winning national titles when he was a student. Still, Matthias was no Boris Becker, so put his racket down to embark on a career in broadcasting, leaving him in the slightly awkward position of commentating on his son’s debut off the bench for Germany U21s at the aforementioned Euros four years ago:
“Arne Maier, the captain, is coming off — well, to put it neutrally: for Anton Stach from Greuther Fürth, who is making his first U21 international appearance. I could also say, “Don’t embarrass me, son!”, but I won’t.”
Matthias stayed relatively quiet for the rest of the game, leaving it to co-commentator René Adler, but with Germany trailing 1-0 to Netherlands at the time of Stach’s introduction, Lukas Nmecha scored a late equaliser two minutes later to make sure everyone could go home happy.
Tracking back to stop a Union Berlin counter-attack while playing for Hoffenheim in February 2024, Stach left a certain Brenden Aaronson alone to deal with Union’s winger instead, only to get skinned on the outside, allowing Aaronson to take advantage of the extra space and bag a late equaliser.
I mean, come on, mate. That essentially never happens. Just get your own back in training, I guess. Maybe not too harshly though.
With Leeds on their secret training camp in Germany, Stach’s announcement was pretty low key, although the club still did their best to let us know about Stach’s apparent USP:
— Leeds United (@LUFC) July 22, 2025
And one more time for good measure:
🙌 GIANT signing! pic.twitter.com/ruaDQFoaWI
— Leeds United (@LUFC) July 22, 2025
And for those of you at the back not paying attention: HE’S REALLY TALL!
Leeds missed a trick by making Stach sit down for his first LUTV interview rather than letting him tower over the minion asking him questions. It still produced a nice line at least:
“I’m so excited. I want to feel the atmosphere. I heard some things about the fans or about the tradition of Leeds — Dirty Leeds, I think. So I’m looking forward to it and to seeing the fans.”
Quick, someone get him a Leeds Scum Are Back t-shirt. If we make them big enough.
The bad news is Stach is the type of important but ostensibly quite boring midfielder. He’s really good at interceptions, making more than anyone over the last two seasons in Bundesliga, so he’s basically a tall — has anyone mentioned he’s really tall? — Ilia Gruev.
The good news is that if he’s a bit boring on the pitch he can at least have a sense of humour off it, and Stach’s Instagram page suggests he’s a big goofy daft lad who doesn’t take himself too seriously, which I’m all for:
We should add that to the scouting filter. ⬢
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