Impact of Foreign players in European leagues – Bundesliga

Football has become a truly global sport. With its worldwide reach, never as prominent as in this millennium,every major European league is able to attract hidden talents from different corner of the globe. This has markedly changed player demographics in the best leagues. Debojyoti Chakraborty brings to you a whole new series on these foreign imports. Sit back, relax, and let Goalden Times take you on an incredible trip. The third instalment of this series features Bundesliga.

Prologue

The Fußball-Bundesliga, literally translated as Football Federal League and commonly known as the Bundesliga, is the top tier professional association football league in Germany.Famous for its knowledgeable and ardent football fans, the league boasts the highest average stadium attendance among all global football leagues. In fact, Bundesliga’s figure of 42,609 fans per game is second only to America’s NFLin global professional sport.It is a testimony to its popularity that Bundesliga is broadcast in over 200 countries. Currently ranked third in Europe according to UEFA’s league coefficient ranking, and certainly on the ascendency, Bundesliga is one of the top most leagues in the World. Unlike other top European Leagues – all covered in this series –Bundesliga features only 18 teams instead of the common norm of 20 teams. Rest of the structure is in sync with others though – the league runs from August to May, matches are mostly played over the weekends making it more practical for fans to travel and watch the games and the bottom three teams get relegated to the lower division known as Bundesliga 2 from where three teams get promoted each year. The domestic cup competition DFB-Pokal is keenly contested and the winner locks horn with the Bundesliga winner in the DFL-Super cup, the season opener.

Bundesliga started in 1963-64 and since then a total of 53 clubs have competed for the title. FC Bayern Munich is the most decorated and successful club in the league’s history, having won the Bundesliga 23 times. Other prominent clubs are Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach and VfB Stuttgart.
 
Bundesliga clubs need to be majority-owned by German club members – with the exception of few clubs which were originally founded as factory teams – to discourage control by a single entity, and operate under tight restrictions on the use of debt for acquisitions. This has resulted in a self-sustaining revenue generation model where 11 out of 18 Bundesliga clubs have reported in green last season. This is a marked difference viz-a-viz the buy me trophies approach of other major European leagues, a trend that has seen several high profile teams coming under ownership of business tycoons and Arab sheiks, and a larger number of clubs having high levels of debt.
 
Good showing by German clubs over a sustained period in Europe has pushed them above Serie A in European Coefficients,allowing the fourth placed team from Germany an entry to the UEFA Champions League since 2011. However what is striking is the fact that Bundesliga has not really dominated the rest of Europe in this period. Before Bayern Munich won the Champions League in 2012 beating Borussia Dortmund in an all-German final, the last team to win the same was Bayern themselves way back in 2000-01. Last German club to win the Europa League, Europe’s second tier continental tournament, was FC Schalke 04 when they won it almost two decades back in 1996-97. It is rather the collective good showing of the Bundesliga clubs that has paved the way for more German clubs’ participation in the Champions League.
 
Here is another interesting piece of statistic – below we see a comparison between FIFA ranking of the top European nations and their respective domestic league’s rankings. La Liga still dominates Europe but Spain has gone off the radar in recent years which is reflected in the difference in the rankings of club and country. Germany, on the other hand, has the lowest ranking difference and that too with the best average ranking – indicative of their dominance at both Club and country level. Interestingly, only Netherlands and Belgium alongside Germany have a better national team ranking than their league ranking – no wonder these three national teams are also among the most exciting teams currently in world football.
 

 
So, let us try to find out why the top Bundesliga teams have fared so well over the last few seasons under their robust financial regulations and demonstrated a new brand of footballing philosophy for others to follow. Our sample size is five—the top five clubs since the 2009–10 season.

 Borussia Mönchengladbach

First up is Borussia Mönchengladbach, Die Borussen – The club from North Rhine-Westphalia, one of Germany’s best-known, best-supported, and most successful clubs. 1970’s was their golden decade when they won five Bundesliga titles, including a hat trick of crowns between 1975 and 1977. They encountered a dip in performance soon after owing to a financial crisis, with the ultimate low coming in the form of relegation from Bundesliga in 2006-07. But since then Mönchengladbach have been on the up – Bundesliga 2 glory and promotion to the top tier in 2007-08 has paved the way for steady success in years to come. In the last five years, they have steadily moved up the league table and now are seen as a strong contender for the Champions League play-off spot. Although they have had limited exposure to continental football – their only appearance was cut short in the Champions League qualifying match in 2012-13 – it is fair to say that they have never really longed for it. That presents a very sound picture of this club’s goal – focus on the job at hand and do not burden yourself by being overambitious.Based on lessons from their past, Borussia Mönchengladbach is run on very strict financial grounds. Their first team squad size hovers around a very acceptable figure of mid 20’s and if anything, the trend is downwards. But even then, they have an eye for class. Their foreign player ratio is in the region of 40-50% and usually they have done more than just add up the numbers. Brazilian Raffael Caetano de Araújo was the club’stop scorer in the league in 2013/14. So was Dutch Luuk de Jong (jointly) in 2012/13, a season when Venezuelan Juan Arango became the top assist provider for the club, a feat he has achieved for two consecutive seasons. So not only have Mönchengladbach been able to find quality foreign players to augment their local talent, they have also been able to find them from different parts of the globe. It has paid healthy dividends so far, but to take the next step – challenge for the title or domestic cups – they might need to break the bank and sign some marquee players in the near future. They have been raided and have lost crucial players in recent past–Marko Marin in 2009-10, Marco Reus and Dante in 2012-13, Marc-André ter Stegen last summer. They can ill afford to continue this trend if they have any higher ambitions.

FC Schalke 04

Fußball club Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., better known as FC Schalke 04 is originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia and is one of the most popular teams in Germany.Die Königsblauen dominated German football for close to a decade starting from the mid 1930’s. However they had to face the stigma of Bundesliga scandal of 1971 where charges of accepting bribes to forfeit matches were proved against their key players and officials. They have, however, shown signs of improvement in the new millennium and have reached the semis of both Europa League as well as Champions League in last five years. Besides managing European expectations, FC Schalke 04 have also lifted the prestigious DFB Pokal in 2010-11. But their league performance suffered that season as they finished a lowly 14^th in the table. Apart from that, Schalke have been steadily featuring in the top four in Bundesliga, rarely threatening to win it though.Their clear transfer policies have played a huge part behind their success. Schalke have always brought in quality foreign players – Dutch Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Spaniard José Manuel Jurado (both in 2010-11), Ghanaian Kevin-Prince Boateng (in 2013-14) – to augment their local talents, even if they have had to break the bank for such transfers. FC Schalke 04 have stood strong on their own terms and except for selling Manuel Neuer to Bayern Munich in 2011-12, they have never sold any of their prized assets to rival clubs. Schalke have adopted another interesting approach – over the years, they have drastically reduced both their first team squad strength and the number of foreign players in the squad. Partly, this has to do with the availability of an excellent talent pool in Germany; and partly because of FC Schalke 04’s endeavour to run a financially viable system, a system that has led them to have a valuation of $598.5 million and be on the 12^th spot in the list (by Forbes) of richest football clubs The valuation marks a 16% increase from the previous year’s value.So, they have gone big when they were actually certain of their acquisitions but have mostly stayed away from average buys.While the club has done really well in terms of financial stability there is still a lot of work to be done with regards to team building, especially when it comes to facing Europe’s elite teams like Real Madrid who handed them a 9-2 thrashing in the UEFA Champions League last season.

 Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Bayer 04 Leverkusen, known as Leverkusen or simply Bayer, is another prestigious club from Germany, based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Often mocked as Neverkusen for their failure to win any major trophy – they missed out on Bundesliga title narrowly four times between 1996-97 and 2001-02 – Bayer Leverkusen came into prominence as late as the 1990’s. 2001-02 was a memorable, yet painful year for them as they finished second in everything they competed for – the league, the domestic cup as well as the UEFA Champions League. In the process, Leverkusen became – and remain the only club till date to appear in the final of a UEFA Champions league without ever winning a domestic league title.With consistent qualification to the UEFA Champions League, Bayer Leverkusen have been really consistent in the last few years. However their failure to climb up the ladder can be termed as stagnancy as well. A squad, dominated by domestic players (~ 60%),  whose average age hovers around the mid 20’s, to finish 3^rd-4^th on the league table – one can predict their season at the start of it and chances are, it will be right on the money. Their lack of squad depth has been heavily exposed in the Champions League – they were humiliated by Barcelona 7-1 away from home in 2011-12 and by Paris Saint-Germain 4-0 at home last season. And although these thrashings did not prevent Leverkusen from negotiating the group stages, they did not progress much beyond either. And it seems, the board is least bothered about that. Arturo Vidal of Chile in 2011-12, German André Schürrle and Spaniard Daniel Carvajal in 2013-14, and another German Emre Can in 2014-15 – these are some of the high profile names to depart from the club in recent history. Rarely have Bayer Leverkusen been able to sustain their core group and their new signing this season – Turkish attacking midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu also is rumored to leave in the summer (possibly to Barcelona). This is precisely the reason why even after being a financially stable club, Bayer Leverkusen unfortunately has been loathed as a “plastic club”.A late achiever in the German football scene, Leverkusen suffer from a traditional or committed fan base and is perceived to be run solely on the backing of their rich pharmaceutical company sponsor.

 Borussia Dortmund

Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e.V. Dortmund, better known as Borussia Dortmund, Dortmund, or BVB, is a German sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. The football team is part of a 115,000 member strong sports club, making Dortmund the third largest sports club by membership in Germany. Dortmund has a rich footballing history but their tryst with football glory only came late in the last millennium. When everything looked set for a brighter future, Dortmund shocked the German football system by reporting a huge debt of €118.8 million in 2004. It was then revealed thatDie Borussen had gone beyond their limits in search of silverwares. They had invested heavily to recruit foreign players but failure to advance to the main stages of the 2003-04 UEFA Champions League meant that the club had to withstand huge financial losses. Loans from rival clubs like Bayern Munich, sale of stadium naming rights, getting almost bankrupt – Dortmund have seen it all and fortunately, come out stronger and wiser. One of the forces behind their turn around was their loyal fans – Borussia Dortmund recorded an average of 80,297 fans for all the home matches in the 2013-14 season, the highest in Europe. Also, the club shifted its focus to young home-grown players. In the last five years, the presence of local players in Dortmund’s squad has gone up from 52% to 61.54%. At the same time, the squad strength has remained practically constant – 25, 23, 23, 23 and 26. The quality of these players and the results are there for everyone to see – consistent top two finishes in the league with couple of titles, one cup (DFB-Pokal) crown with another final appearance, and a UEFA Champions League final after 17 years. Borussia Dortmund are certainly on the right track.Though local talent has had a huge role to play in their revival,  it is not that Dortmund had turned a blind eye towards foreign players.In last couple of years they have broken the bank to bring in quality players like Henrikh Mkhitaryan(Armenia), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon), Socratis Papasthopoulos(Greece), Kevin Kampl (Slovenia), Adrián Ramos (Colombia), Shinji Kagawa (Japan), Ciro Immobile (Italy) to build up a team as diverse as one can imagine. But they have all augmented an already strong squad. In our analysis period (last five seasons), thrice the top goal scorer and four times the top assist provider has been a German. True, they are having a miserable season this time round but that has been already dealt in detail here.

FC Bayern Munich

Fußball-Club Bayern Münchene.V., globally famous as FC Bayern München, FCB,Bayern Munich, or FC Bayern, is the most successful German football club. Based in Munich, Bavaria, Bayern havewon a record 24 national titles, 17 national cups and also five (a German record) UEFA Champions League crowns. On top of that, Bayern are an exemplary club in professional football having reported profits in nine of the last ten seasons. More often than not, they have topped their previous year’s record earnings. This is achieved in spite of the fact that Bayern earn only 22% of their revenues through broadcasting rights (for other big clubs, this figure is as high as 35%) under the supervision of Deutsche Fußball Liga. One of the strong fundamentals behind Bayern Munich’s amazing financing is that they always use their current assets, not loans, to fund recruitment of players. And that too when each year they have had big ticket signings for the last five seasons. Except for the 2014-15 season they have had huge transfer spending. But even if Bayern have spent big, they have spent wise too. And this has paid handsome dividends – three Bundesliga, three DFB-Pokal and one Champions League titles. Bayern’s showing in the continental front was spectacular to say the least – they featured in two more finals and one more semifinal between 2009-10 till date. Only season they made a premature exit was in  2010-11, and that too on the basis of away goals.  Their standards have been so high that their lowly third finish was called a “blip”. Other than that success and Bayern have been pronounced in the same breath. Like any big club, Bayern have huge expectations to fulfill in each transfer window and they have not disappointed their fans and stakeholders with quality signings like Mario Gómez, Arjen Robben, Luiz Gustavo, Manuel Neuer, Jérôme Boateng, Javi Martínez, Mario Mandzukic, Xherdan Shaqiri, Mario Götze, Thiago Alcántara, Mehdi Benatia, Xabi Alonso and Robert Lewandowski. The list features four Germans, one Dutch, two Brazilians, two Spaniards, one Croat, one Swiss, one Moroccan and one Polish player – and all of them flourished in the German giant’s first XI during the last five seasons. And it is not always that Bayern have gone after the flavor of the season – some of their most notable recruits had been perceived as past their prime (Alonso), failures (Robben) or yet unproven (Alcántara) in other big leagues. Stability is what they thrive on and that is evident from their foreign player recruitment policy also. Bayern have maintained a stable 50% participation of domestic players in their first team squad. This figure is actually quite low compared to its closest rivals but one can’t really complain when the results have been so spectacular.

Conclusion

Bundesliga is well known for running a profitable business model.Among Europe’s five major leagues, they have the highest average attendance, lowest ticket prices, and lowest pay out (less than 50%) on footballers’ wages. That allowed the German clubs to collectively book profit even during the peak of recession time during the 2009–10 season.
 
Much before the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations came into picture in September 2009, Bundesliga was running a self-imposed strictly regulated financial model. Every club has to pass through the scrutiny process of the German Football Federation (DFB) at the beginning of each season where their transfer documents and accounts are inspected before they are granted the approval for participation in the league that season. The DFB have a system of fines and points deductions for clubs who flout rules and those who go into the red can only buy a player after selling one for at least the same amount.
 
Surely Bundesliga is not as popular as, say, the English Premier League worldwide – English Premier League enjoys higher revenue growth thanks to a larger global fanbase and skyrocketing television income (as the English have a less competitive pay-TV market).But then the English clubs do spend an absurd amount of their income on players’wages. Bundesliga clubs, instead,generally enter into partnership with local firms, several of whom eventually go on to become big global companies. That is why Bayern Munich received 55% of its income from company sponsorship deals, while their English counterpart, Manchester United received a mere 37%.
 
The inflection point in recent German football evolution came in 2000 – the year that saw them crashing out of European Championships at the group stages with one draw and two defeats.To address the dearth of talent at a national level, the German Football Association and the Bundesliga instructed all the clubs to run a youth academy to boost the stream of local talent. A decade later, the top tiers of German football was seen spending an average of €75m annually on these youth academies – training 5,000 players in the age group of 12–18, increasing the under-23-year-olds in the Bundesliga from 6% to 15% in a 10-year span. This is money well spent – nurturing home grown talent instead of splashing out cash on (sometimes average) foreign players and falling in the spiral of billions of debt.

With everyone going gaga over the success of German national team and clubs, it is widely accepted that Bundesliga is ruled by the German players. Well, time for the myth to be busted. As shown above, Bayern Munich, leader of the pack, has a pretty high share of foreign players in its first team squad. That high number has also practically remained constant throughout the recent years (low fluctuation, Std. Deviation). But there is another facet to these high numbers – they are well augmented by their German counterparts. That is why almost every top club is less dependent on their foreign imports for their season’s outcome (low correlation between no of Foreign players in the squad and eventual final standing), at least for the clubs at the top of the table. As we move lower down the table, and as the local talent pool is closer to exhaustion, clubs become more and more dependent on foreign signings. And quality recruitment in Bundesliga has not been an issue thanks to its strong financial base. Only aberration in the above figures is FC Schalke 04 (correlation of -55.71%), but that is mainly due to the 2010-11 season when their league campaign was hampered (or strategically sacrificed) by deep cup runs – they eventually managed to win the DFB-Pokal and reached the last four of Champions League. If we ignore that season, their correlation value comes out to be 13.95%, perfectly in line with our analysis.

That was it for the superpowers of Bundesliga. Watch this space for more in our next instalment.

Looking Ahead – Bundesliga Season Preview 2014-15

 Germany is a model for all other European super powers. After Spain, they are now dominating World football both at club and country level. Sayan Chakraborty looks at the clubs which churn out footballers like anything. Bundesliga preview, part three with Goalden Times.

Lucian Favre has worked wonders with this team since taking over as Borussia Mönchengladbach’s manager in 2011. The 56 year old has transformed the fortunes of the club, 5 times Bundesliga champions who were struggling at the wrong end of the table, and turned them from relegation contenders to challenging for UEFA Champions League places. ‘The Foals’ have qualified for Champions League back in 2012 under Favre and although Mönchengladbach failed to make it into the group stages they enjoyed a fine UEFA Europa League run – a competition they will compete in this year as well. Favre, a skillful tactician, has drilled his team to play a dynamic, quick and attacking minded football. This season many key players have left ‘Gladbach, with highly rated young German goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen’s move to Barcelona the most notable. Inspirational Venezuelan international Juan Arango has also left the club after 5 successful seasons at the club. Club record signing, Luuk De Jong, who failed to settle in Bundesliga, has also been offloaded to PSV. To cope with the loss of key players the club has done some pragmatic spending this summer by recruiting Swiss international goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who has been given the responsibility to replace ter Stegen between the sticks and young German midfielder André Hahn, one of the revelation of last season for Augsburg. Two skillful, fast and direct wingers-cum-wingbacks were signed in the form of Ibrahima Traoré and Fabian Johnson from Stuttgart and Hoffenheim respectively. Thorgan Hazard, the younger brother of Chelsea star Eden Hazard, has also arrived from Chelsea on loan. The likes of World cup winning German midfielder Christoph Kramer, Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka, Brazilian playmaker Raffael and Patrick Hermann give the team more quality and options in the middle of the park. Although defence can be a cause of concern for them, with the team having a settled look and covering up their weaknesses in the form of new signings we can expect another strong campaign from Favre’s side. The biggest disappointment for ‘gladbach in the last few seasons is lack of consistency, and the ability to hold on to a good position in the table for a long enough period.  With the experience and stability that they have, they should be able to hold on this time to secure UCL qualification.

Key Player : Max Kruse (Germany)

German international Max Kruse, 26, had a highly impressive debut season at ‘Gladbach since signing from Freiburg last season. Kruse has scored 12 and assisted the same number of goals for Gladbach last season; No wonder ‘Foals’ supporters are considering him as their key player for the forthcoming season. Kruse is a perfect target man, who can play direct football with devastating effect and is work ethic is absolutely outstanding with his constant runs through the channels. With Gladbach now having quality wingers and fullbacks on both wings, Kruse will hope to use those quality crosses to lead Gladbach to Champions League qualification this time which has just eluded them in the past couple of seasons.

What will you do when your team’s manager has retired after winning an unprecedented Treble? It’s simple: appoint arguably the best manager of the generation. When Jupp Heynckes left Bayern in 2013, Pep Guardiola was appointed with the aim to match his predecessor’s achievements. Guardiola almost achieved the targer by winning the Bundesliga, done in record time in terms of games remaining, and the DFB Pokal. Only a crushing semi final defeat in the Champions League at the hands of Real Madrid robbed them of the opportunity to become the first team to retain the UEFA Champions League. But with Pep’s ‘Tiki-Taka’ philosophy firmly in place at Allianz Arena and with a near perfect team, Bayern Munich remain not only the favorites to win the league but also the team to beat Europe. Toni Kroos, the stylish German midfielder has moved to Real Madrid after an impressive World Cup winning campaign as did Mario Mandžukić, who moved to Spanish champions Atlético Madrid after a couple of successful seasons at Munich. But Bayern Munich may have pulled the deal of the Transfer Window so far by luring Polish striker and one of the most lethal finishers in the world right now, Robert Lewandowski. Having signed a pre-contract agreement with Bayern in January, Lewandowski has arrived from Dortmund on a “free transfer. Talented Spanish fullback Juan Bernat (from Valencia) and German midfielder Sebastian Rode (from Eintracht Frankfurt) have also arrived, providing ample squad depth. Spanish world cup winning goalkeeper Pepe Reina has been signed from Liverpool to provide competition to the almost ‘invincible’ Manuel Neuer. Having been defeated by fierce rivals Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the German Super Cup scoreline, the start of the season was far from ideal for the club. The unfortunate injury to Javi Martinez in DFB Super Cup means Bayern will need a new player, according to Pep. Dortmund may also have given glimpses to the formula that can test Bayern’s defence: fast runs down the middle, and switching wings by the wingers. Same happened to Pep coached barcelona earlier, which remains the only glitch in the semi-tiki taka system of Bayern as Real Madrid exposed it in last year’s UCL semifinal. But Bayern Munich, a model club in many respects, would hope to retain the Bundesliga title and challenge for UEFA Champions League. Also

Key Player :  Robert Lewandowski (Poland)

It is very difficult to choose a key player from a team which has the majority of players in the world cup winning German along with some world class talents like Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben. But Bayern’s key man for this season could be the man who joined Bayern Munich from rivals Dortmund. Star striker Robert Lewandowski is the man everybody in Bavaria will look forward to this season. Having scored 74 goals for Borussia Dortmund in just 4 seasons, Lewandowski has developed at SignalIdunaPark into one of the best finishers of the world and he will hope to continue that form for his new employers. A complete striker in every sense, Lewandowski is good aerially , can hold up the ball well, can dribble past opponents with consummate ease and above all a composed finisher in front of goal.  His goals will be crucial this season if Bayern have to win or come closer to another ‘Treble’ this season.

Last season Paderborn surprised everyone and achieved an unexpected promotion to Bundesliga after finishing the 2. Bundesliga as runners-up. This season will be the debut season in Germany’s top flight football for the modest North Rhine-Westphalia outfit. Coach André Breitenreiter, 40 , has done exceptionally well last season with a bunch of journeyman footballers when nobody’s fancied them for automatic promotion. Germany is a country which now havs an abundance of innovative, exciting young manager and André Breitenreiter is the latest name on the list. Having already coached lower league sides, Breitenreiter has now lead Paderborn to the promised land of Bundesliga for the first time ever in his first season in charge. Last season languishing midtable in ninth spot by the winter break, Paderborn sensationally doubled their tally of wins from six to 12 in the second half of the campaign and out-scored every other team in the league with 33 goals. As a newly promoted side competing in the Bundesliga for the first time, Breitenreiter will know how tough life will be at Bundesliga. Süleyman Koç is a striker who will attract special attention this season. Koç was imprisoned until January 2014 due to his part in a robbery during his time at Babelsberg 03, Paderborn have offered him a second chance after his release and he has never looked back since. Paderborn have retained the core of the team that have won them promotion last season and added players like striker Marvin Ducksch from Dortmund on loan, midfielder Lukas Rupp from Mönchengladbach and have made the loan move of striker Elias Kachunga from Mönchengladbach permanent. But with a host of players inexperienced in top level, they might struggle this season before eventually getting relegated.

Key Player  :   Alban Meha (Albania)

Undoubtedly the star performer of Paderborn’s promotion winning campaign, Albanian international Alban Meha will again be Paderborn’s big hope this season. The 28 year old stylish playmaker flourished last season playing in a no.10 role and contributed 12 goals. The most dangerous weapon in his repertoire is his deadly set piece skills that contributed six goals – the most in Germany’s top two tiers. With this his maiden Bundesliga campaign, Meha will be craving to show off his skills in the countries Elite division.

Schalke suffered a mid season slump last term and people were not convinced whether the  43 year old Jens Kellar was the right person for the job. Kellar answered his critics by helping Schalke to qualify for UEFA Champions League for yet another campaign. With club Sporting Director Horst Heldt reaffirming his commitment to Kellar this time ‘Die Königsblauen’ will hope to hit the ground running from the start. Schalke have one of the best academy and youth setup in the land and have constantly churn out excellent players, the like Julian Draxler, Max Meyer and Donis Avdijaj to name a few. With an abundance of young talents at his disposal, summer has been relatively quiet in Veltins-Arena on the transfer front. Cameron international striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting arrived from Mainz and German winger Sidney Sam arrived from Bayer Leverkusen. The loan signing of fullback Dennis Aogo from HSV was made permanent. There have not been any major departures apart from Greek defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos, moved on loan to Bayer Leverkusen, and Hungarian striker Ádám Szalai, sold to Hoffenheim. Striking force is weak link in this line up. Other than Hunteelar, not a lot of people are there who can be depended on to score goals in consistent basis. Farfan, Sidney Sam, and Boateng would have to be pitch in with goals. Keller has a strong squad this season and it would be a failure if Schalke fail to qualify for Champions League.

Key Player  :     Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Netherlands)

‘The Hunter’ as he is fondly called by the Schalke faithfuls, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has resurrected his once faltering career at Schalke after less than impressive spells at Real Madrid and AC Milan. The 31 year old Dutch striker has really thrived at Schalke which culminated in him being awarded the Torjägerkanone (Top Scorer) in 2012 with 29 goals. A lethal finisher, Huntelar has struggled with injury last season but still managed to score 12 goals in 18 Bundesliga appearances to show his worth to the team. With players like Draxler, Meyer, Farfan and Kevin Prince Boateng behind him to create chances, Huntelaar will be as clinical as ever in front of goal as long he is match fit.

One of the richest clubs of Germany apart from Bayern-BVB, automobile giant Volkswagen’s bankrolled team had a disappointing past few seasons before coming within 1 point of UEFA Champions League qualification last season. The 2009 Bundesliga champions appointed 49 year old Dieter Hecking in the autumn of 2012 after Felix Magath, who led them to the title in 2009, left the club by mutual consent. In his 1^st full season in charge, the Germans pragmatic approach paid off and after a slow start Wolfsburg came agonizingly close to a Champions League qualification only to be pipped by Leverkusen. Hecking, as a player, played for Wolfsburg’s two fiercest rivals, Eintracht Braunschweig and Hannover 96 but delivered some stability to Wolfsburg, in the process saving them from the clutches of relegation in 2013 and then the subsequent 5^th place finish in 2014. He is held in high regard at the Volkswagen Arena. This season Wolfsburg made some inspired signings with German fullback Sebastian Jung arriving from Frankfurt, Aaron Hunt from from Werder Bremen on a free transfer. French Defensive midfielder Josuha Guilavogui  was signed from Atlético Madrid on a two season loan to provide cover for Luiz Gustavo. And after failing to sign a striker somewhat bafflingly Wolfsburg have signed Danish striker Niklas Bendtner, a player famous for his off field antics, on a free transfer. There were no significant departures with only some fringe players like Jan Polák, Nassim Ben Khalifa and Tolga Ciğerci have departed the club. Ivica Olic, an experienced campaigner,  knows how to score goals and having him in the line up more regularly can be on option Wolfsburg should consider. With a strong squad and an experienced coach, and having invested heavily over the past few seasons, UEFA Champions League qualification is absolute priority for the Lower Saxony side.

Key Player  : Kevin de Bruyne (Belgium)

Kevin de Bruyne, the 23 year old exciting Belgium midfielder is undoubtedly Wolfsburg’s key player for the forthcoming season. De Bruyne, still young, had a good World Cup and would hope to continue his fine form which made him Wolfsburg’s key player since arriving from Chelsea in the winter transfer window of 2013-14. The Belgian midfield gem works tirelessly both in defence and attack and boasts a good an eye for goal, as he demonstrated with three strikes in his debut half-season. With the club having retained the services of misfiring striker Bas Dost and also having inconsistent players like Niklas Bendtner in attack, de Bruyne will have to contribute more goals if he wants to lead Wolfsburg to the prosmise land of Champions League football.

Armin Veh, on his second homecoming, will be hoping to recreate the same magic he did when he led them the club to their last Bundesliga triumph in 2007. Veh had a hugely successful 3 year spell at Eintracht Frankfurt and took charge at Stuttgart who just survived to beat the drop last season after having several seasons of underachievement. But there is a genuine sense of optimism this time at Mercedes Benz Arena as the fans seems to think that Veh is the man to turn their fortunes around.  This season Stuttgart have brought in the likes of defensive midfielder Oriol Romeu on loan from Chelsea, winger Adam Hloušek and striker Daniel Ginczek from relegated Nuremburg. But their most exciting signing this summer has been the €6 million euro capture of 21 year old Serbian winger Filip Kostić from FC Groningen, one of the standout performers last season in Eredivise with 11 goals and 7 assists to his name. There has been some key departures as well with long serving former German international striker Cacau leaving for Cerezo Osaka in Japan and left sided wingbacks Ibrahima Traoré and Arthur Boka leaving for Borussia Mönchengladbach and Málaga respectively. Veh may not be following quite the same objectives in 2014/15 as he did in 2007 but would be hoping to get Vfb Stuttgart back among the countries elite in the top half of the table.

Key Player :  Vedad Ibisevic (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Thirty year old Bosnian striker Vedad Ibisevic quickly became one of the key figures at Stuttgart since his arrival in 2012 after a successful 5 year stay at Hoffenheim. The 6’3” striker struggled with injuries last season but still got into double figures after scoring 10 goals in 27 apps. A calm and composed finisher he remains vital for Stuttgart who will be relying on him for the goals and with some exciting player like Alexandru Maxim and Filip Kostić drafted into the squad to create more goalscoring opportunities, Ibisevic would be hopeful for a much better showing this term.

German football is enjoying one of its golden periods. A chunk of the success is down to the years of efforts put in to improve the standard of the Bundesliga. The quality of young players churned out and the technical football played has turned bundesliga has truly transformed it into a truly global superpower. However, there is one area where the league needs a lot of improvement – competition at the top of the table. Bayern Munich, owing to their preponderant status and financial power, have become almost untouchable by other clubs. Among the rest of the clubs only Borrusia Dortmund, despite losing their super stars season after season, look like posing some kind of challenge to Bayern’s stranglehold of the league.

However, the rest of the teams are pretty competitive among themselves and with clubs like Schalke, Bayer Leverkusen and Monchengladbach the fight for European spots should be an interesting battle. As far as German representation in the champions league is concerned, barring a massive upset, at least one of Bayern Munich or BvB should make the top 4.

The BFB Pokal could throw up a few potential surprises. The cup represents a realistic shot at silverware to a lot of teams and they go all out to win the knockout matches.

In conclusion, 2014-15 season promises to be another exciting season for German football domestically and one that can potentially lead to silverware in the continent as well. We can only wait in anticipation.

Scouting Network: Marc-André ter Stegen

Goalden Times brings you the stars of tomorrow – 20 years or under, promising players from across the world

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Date of Birth: April 30, 1992

Height: 1.89 m

Position: Goalkeeper

Nationality: German

Club: Borussia Mönchengladbach

Market Value: €10 mn

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Ter Stegen moved through the ranks at Mönchengladbach and enjoyed a rich vein of form in the 2010-11 season, playing for his reserve team and gaining quite a reputation among the local fans. But it seemed his services were more suited to his first team, who had started the season miserably and were sitting ducks right at the bottom of the league table for more than half of the first part of that season. Things had briefly started to fall in place after the appointment of the new manager, Lucien Favre but horrendous mistakes and inconsistency by the then No. 1, Belgian Logan Bailly, was not doing the team any good. The fans already had their support for Ter Stegen, and had known what this teenager was capable of, and thus demanded the new manager to utilise him and give him a taste of football at the highest level, hoping that he would deliver the goods for them. After giving Bailly ample chances to redeem himself, Favre eventually ran out of favour with him and went with Ter Stegen instead, handing him his league debut against 1. FC Köln, on April 10, 2011. The young lad did not disappoint. And by the end of the league campaign, he had kept his place in the side for the rest of the games. He had also kept a clean sheet in 4 games out of a possible 5 in the last five matchdays of the season, helping and inspiring his team to avoid relegation, which they did through the playoffs.

This provided inspiration for the youngster, and since this time around before the start of the new league season of 2011-12, Bailly was sent out on loan to Swiss side Neuchâtel Xamax, the fans knew that the team was in safe hands, so there was added incentive to hope for a better season this time around. This time though, Ter Stegen and his team exceeded all expectations. He helped his team, which had narrowly escaped relegation just the season before, with a top four finish and qualification for the Champions League. He played in 41 matches and conceded just thirty-one goals overall in all competitions, including 19 clean sheets. For this he was rewarded by a call up for the national team from the coach of Germany, Joachim Löw for the provisional squad of Germany for the Euro 2012. He did not make it to the final team, but he did however manage to earn his first cap for his country, in a 3-5 loss against Switzerland in a friendly played on May 26, 2012.

When Manuel Neuer was bought by Bayern Munich from FC Shalke 04, he was the most sought after goalkeeper in the whole world. Pundits were ready to call him the best in the world. And he made his debut, fittingly against Ter Stegen’s Mönchengladbach at Allianz Arena, Bayern’s home ground. Things didn’t turn out the way people had hoped for, with Ter Stegen playing out of his skins by producing a string of wonderful saves to keep Bayern at bay, and helping his team beat them 1-0. The same thing happened on the night of the opening fixture of 2012, when Mönchengladbach hosted Bayern and won 3-1.

As has often been the case, he has been compared with his childhood idol, the great Oliver Kahn, and one cannot but notice the distinct similarity in the style of the two. Like Kahn, Ter Stegen also has good reflexes and hand-eye coordination, and stoops down to make difficult one-handed saves with quite ease, pushing the ball out of harm’s way swiftly and efficiently. He is not afraid to catch shots from a distance unlike the normal trend which is to parry and push balls away. He is known to be a sweeper keeper, who likes to get on with things quickly, and frequently starts a counter attack from the back by releasing the ball quickly, and has an aerial superiority when it comes to handling crosses, as well as decisiveness on when to rush out and when to stand his ground on one-on-one scenarios. Trying to do a similar thing, he once had a freak accident where he lost his two front teeth in a collision with goalkeeping coach of Mönchengladbach, Uwe Kamps. When asked about the incident, the shot-stopper told that both he and his coach went for the same ball while training, and eventually collided with each other.

He is a highly talented player, and has been highly rated by people all over. EPL clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspurs, who’ve been consistent in Europe for the past few seasons, have kept an eye on his developments and have been quoted as being the frontrunners in trying to persuade the Germans to come to the Merseyside. Don’t be surprised if you see him playing for one of the top teams in the near future, or even represent Germany between the sticks in a World Cup or European Championship.

Mönchengladbach Rediscovers its Wings

Gladbach had a quiet summer transfer in 2011 and nobody did pay any attention to a club which somehow saved relegation last season. Their opening match of this season was against record German champions and fourtimes Champions League winner, Bayern Munich. Everybody was expecting a breezing start for the Bavarians. However, Bayern was shot down by Favre’s team 0-1 at Bayern’s own den. It was probably a signal to the other teams in Bundesliga that this year Gladbach is going to be something special. However, one match wonder doesn’t prove anything (last year’s win of 6-3 against Leverkusen was proof of that) and football fraternity thought probably this is just another accident and Gladbach will struggle as usual and return to their usual poor way.

Needless to say, it didn’t happen like that and people started getting surprised by each Gladbach match. After the fifthround,Gladbach was thirdin the table with 10 points. They kept stunning everyone and after the fifteenthround they were still in thirdspot with 30 points, just a point behind the first place. By the time this article is being written, they are comfortably sitting at thirdplace in the table after twenty-fiverounds with 48 points, 8 points behind league leaders Dortmund with tenmatches to spare. A championship bid may be fantastic, but with four Champions League slots available, Gladbach would surely play in next season’s Champions League, unless their season implodes spectacularly. They have collected 29 points from thirteenmatches at home and 19 points from twelveaway matches. Through the course of the season, they not only have beaten the weaker sides but thumped the biggies too. They have done a double against Bayern Munich, beaten Schalke convincingly 3-0 at home and thrashed Werder Bremen 5-0 away.

Gladbach have carried this form in the domestic cup competition too. They have qualified for the semi-finals where they meet Bayern Munich in thirdweek of March. Having done the double in the league over the German super power, Lucien Favre’s team can certainly dream about knocking Bayern Munich out of the competition.

So how can these dramatic turnarounds be explained? What’s the secret behind it? Well, the credit must always go to the players first as they have to perform on the pitch. But it is almost the same set of players who were pathetic last season. A deeper look and you will find it’s the coach, Lucien Favre who is the main man behind this. He is the man who brought unprecedented upswing in the performance from the same set of players. He established the proven fact once again that football is a game where quality of the coach really matters. Probably Jurgen Klopp of Dortmund can be compared with him, as per coaches’ contribution is concerned in Bundesliga, in recent years, or he might have even outshone Klopp to some extent. Since his arrival,Gladbach has conceded a total of 22 goals and only 14 goals so far this season which is best defensive record in Bundesliga for the ongoing season. Never in a match Gladbach has conceded more than twogoals and we all know if a team stops conceding goals then the probability of losing the match reduces and that’s the first thing Favre has done.

Marc-Andre TerStegen,Gladbach’s 19-year old goalkeeper has been outstanding under the bar and the kind of maturity he has shown belies his age. He is being considered as the best goalkeeping talent in Germany and probably a successor tocurrent national team goalkeeper, Manuel Neuar.

The backline has been in superb form as they have conceded the lowest numberof goals so far in the league. Widely manned by captain FilipDaems(Belgium), DanteBonfim da Costa (Brazil), Martin Stranzl (Austria) andRoelBrouwers(Holland),it forms a multinational defence line. But they provide just the right amount of solidity which has allowed Ter Stegen to have a record 12 clean sheets. The twoholding medios,HavardNordtveit andRoman Neustädter have been rock solid and these two guys are probably the unsung heroes of Gladbach’s excellent defensive record.

On the attacking front, Marco Reus has been having a breakout season. Often considered the best player of Bundesliga this season, he is almost toying with opponent defence and has thirteengoals in 23 starts. Reus though has already signed a deal with champions Dortmund and would join them in the end of the season this year. But Mönchengladbach may have another rising star in Patrick Herrmann, who is providing Reus great support from the right wing. Hermann has sixgoals in 19 appearances. Veteran Venezuelan wing wizard Juan Arango too has complemented Hermann and Reus, controlling the left wing. His nineassists are only second to Franc Ribery’stwelveafter the 25^th round.

So can the other clubs take any lessons from the Gladbach story, which is still unfolding? Probably, yes. Find the right coach, give him time and responsibilities and he will bring the best out of the players. This has been the story at Dortmund under Jurgen Klopp and the same story is getting repeated at Gladbach.

Whether Gladbach will ultimately become Bundesligachampions or not, after 1977, or reach the Champions League for the first time in their history or whether they can win the prestigious DFB Cup after 17 years, only time will tell. But it can surely be said they will fight neck-to-neck with Dortmund, Bayern and Schalke till the last round of the season. But what’s in the future? Is this just a one year show or can they perform like this consistently? Is their golden era truly back? They are not a rich club. Already the jewel in their crown, Marco Reus has signed a deal with Dortmund. Will more such exodus follow?These are questions that the Borussiafaithfuls are wondering.

But for the time being, they are being taken on a ride by Favre’s merry men and the fans are singing. Let the miracle continue.