Maza: Bayer Leverkusen's Rising Star Attracts Premier League Giants

The chase is on for Maza – and Bayer Leverkusen know exactly what they’re sitting on.

Across Europe’s elite, the 20-year-old Algerian playmaker has gone from promising talent to priority target. Arsenal and Manchester United were the first Premier League heavyweights to be strongly linked, but the queue is getting longer. Manchester City and Atletico Madrid have now joined the hunt, keeping a direct line open to the player’s camp as they track any hint of movement.

This isn’t casual window-shopping. Arsenal and United have had him under the microscope since he walked through the doors at the BayArena. Their scouts have watched him grow, week after week, into one of the most intriguing young creators in the Bundesliga.

Leverkusen’s decision to move for him from Hertha BSC in the summer of 2025 already looks like a masterstroke. Under the guidance of the German champions, Maza’s reputation has exploded beyond Germany’s borders. He has gone from a smart pick-up to a continental talking point, the kind of name that comes up in recruitment meetings at the biggest clubs.

Leverkusen, though, hold the cards.

Maza is locked into a long-term deal until June 2030. That contract is a shield and a weapon: no release clause panic, no ticking clock. If anyone wants him, they will have to pay what the Werkself believe he is worth – and they have set the bar high.

According to Fussball News, Leverkusen have attached a price tag of up to €70m to their midfielder. It’s a figure that underlines both his current impact and how far he can still go.

At 20, he is not yet the finished article, but he already carries the swagger and decisiveness of a player much further along the curve.

The number hasn’t scared off the Premier League. If anything, it has sharpened the focus. Mikel Arteta wants more guile and invention between the lines at Arsenal. At Old Trafford, the recruitment team are under pressure to find players who can unpick deep blocks and change the rhythm of games in the final third. Maza fits that brief almost perfectly.

What makes him so tempting is not just his eye for a pass but the flexibility of where he can deliver it from. His most natural habitat is the number ten pocket, floating between midfield and attack, but he has shown he can drop into a more orthodox central role or pull wide into the channels. That kind of tactical elasticity is gold dust for coaches trying to build fluid, unpredictable systems.

On the data sheets, he jumps off the page. Acceleration that snaps defenders’ balance. Flair in tight spaces. Vision to see runs others miss. Analysts see a player who can carry the ball through pressure, commit markers, and still have the composure to pick the right option at speed.

He has already tested himself beyond club level as well. With Algeria, Maza has collected 21 caps and scored twice, gaining experience in high-stakes international fixtures before most players his age have even settled at one club. That exposure has hardened him, proving he can handle expectation and noise on the big stage.

All of that feeds into the looming decision.

The Premier League’s pull is undeniable: global spotlight, relentless intensity, the chance to define games at the very top. But there is a risk baked into every big move at this age. Choose the wrong project, and the wonderkid becomes the bench option, the “one for the future” who never quite escapes the shadows of established stars.

For Maza, minutes matter more than marketing. He needs a platform where he starts, not just trains; where his development remains on an upward curve rather than stalling in a rotation. Any move away from the Bundesliga has to offer a clear route into the starting XI and a style of football that amplifies his strengths, not hides them.

Leverkusen can wait. The suitors cannot.

The next step he takes will say as much about his ambition as it does about the clubs who believe they can build around him.