sell instead of buy sell instead of buy – and the cruse surprise in the evening
dusseldorf – erling haaland was the most mentioned name in transfer rumors these days. he stays with borussia dortmund? Or does he go? And where? Real madrid? Paris saint-Germain? Manchester united?
The fact that the norwegian goal machine dominated the headlines in the winter transfer window is telling. Is it with him, nevertheless, at most about a change in the summer.
But the transfers that had been made up until shortly before deadline day were made this Monday did not involve even remotely similar big names. Although the sporting directors of the Bundesliga soccer clubs were as busy as ever in this phase, the motto for most of them in corona times was: sell instead of buy.
on sunday evening, there was a rather remarkable personnel development after all. Max kruse asked the fans of european cup contender 1. FC union berlin immediately asks for understanding, because the 33-year-old former national player leaves the eisernen after only one and a half years already again. And returns to vfl wolfsburg, for whom he played before but who are currently fighting relegation.
20 players come, 41 go
By Sunday morning, the 18 clubs had signed a combined total of just 20 players, but in turn had given up 41. This could undercut the already only 25 commitments from the previous year. And at that time, players like ex-world champion sami khedira (hertha BSC) or shkodran mustafi (schalke) arrived, RB leipzig spent 20 million for hungarian dominik szoboszlai.
The more prominent transfers that could still take place before the window closes at 6 p.m. on Monday are mainly players who want to leave or are expected to leave this year: wolfsburg goalkeeper wout weghorst, for example, who is moving to burnley.
Or in gladbach about ex-world champion matthias ginter and midfield star denis zakaria. Both have already announced their departure for the summer. But because they would then be free on transfer, the gladbachers would like to get rid of them right now. What they have to manage, however, without manager max eberl, who resigned on Friday for health reasons.
Vice-president rainer bonhof denied it on sunday morning in the sport1 program "doppelpass" moreover, that there is still no concrete offer from juventus turin for the swiss zakaria. According to concurring media reports from italy, juve is to offer borussia around seven million euros, including bonuses, for an immediate transfer of the swiss player, who is free on a summer transfer deal. "I think there’s a wish", said bonhof, a concrete offer is not yet available: "we have in principle nothing in the hand."
So far only four internal change in the league
As a replacement for ginter, the gladbacher have already signed marvin friedrich from union berlin. The allegedly with bonuses of up to seven million euros in transfer fee had been "cut from the ribs", said the then still acting eberl. So far, it was only one of four internal changes of the league. Union signed freiburg’s dominique heintz as friedrich’s replacement, frankfurt loaned out dortmund’s up-and-coming striker ansgar knauff and hertha signed stuttgart’s marc-oliver kempf.
Otherwise, most players were transferred abroad, but even there there were few prominent losses for the league. leverkusen’s nadiem amiri (genoa) and frankfurt’s amin younes (loan with napoli ended prematurely) are two ex-national players who have not played much of a role recently or, in the case of younes, none at all. Bielefeld recruited gonzalo castro, a former national team player, from unemployment for the project.
the winter rebuild will be somewhat larger, at best, for hertha in berlin, which is once again threatened with relegation. In kempf, fredrik andre bjorkan (FK bodo glimt) and south korean dongjun lee (ulsan hyundai), manager fredi bobic had already brought in three new players by sunday. More to follow. but bobic cannot bid for haaland despite lars windhorst’s investor millions.