Surprisingly, Armel Bella Kotchap had made it into the World Cup squad of the German national team. VfL Bochum also benefited from this.

Somewhat surprisingly, Hansi Flick had called up talent Armel Bella Kotchap to the World Cup squad of Germany. The defender, who transferred from VfL Bochum to Southampton FC in the summer, is only 20 years old. He has made his mark in the English Premier League so far.

Flick also took him to Qatar to further introduce him to the DFB team with an eye on the future, the 2024 European Championship at home in Germany, the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

VfL Bochum will also benefit from this. Just as it will from the participation of Takuma Asano, who reached the round of 16 with Japan thanks in part to Asano’s goal against Germany. This is because the world football association Fifa pays out around 200 million euros pro rata to the players’ clubs for the 800 World Cup players.

For Asano and Bella Kotchap, VfL will each receive two thirds of the Fifa bonuses

And proportionally to the clubs with which the professionals are or were under contract in the current season and in the two seasons before. In the case of Bella Kotchap, this means that Southampton will receive one third of the sum and VfL Bochum two thirds. In the case of Takuma Asano, who came to Bochum in the summer of 2021 (previously without a club or Partizan Belgrade), Bochum will also receive two-thirds of the sum.

Fifa takes into account every day of the World Cup, including the preparation. According to the sports magazine kicker, clubs of players who are eliminated after the preliminary round receive a total of around 170,000 euros, and 208,000 euros after an eighth-final elimination. The maximum sum for a final appearance is 349,000 euros.

Accordingly, Bochum will receive around 112,000 euros for Bella Kotchap and 139,000 euros for Asano. VfL can therefore plan on receiving around 251,000 euros, although it will still take time for Fifa to calculate the exact final sums and then pay them out.

Schalke 04 are bottom of the Bundesliga, FC Bayern are top by a long way

This puts Bochum well ahead of bottom-placed Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga rankings, who come in at just €69,000 in World Cup money for Maya Yoshida. According to kicker, Union Berlin (113,000 euros) and 1. FC Köln (227,000 euros) receive less Fifa money than Bochum. The front-runner is FC Bayern with around 3.8 million euros, well ahead of BVB (around 2 million euros). Of VfL’s supposedly fiercest relegation rivals, VfB Stuttgart benefited the most with 718,000 euros.