Buli News Roundup: Kahn’s future in Asia and a few exciting Transfer Stories

By: Jan | July 3rd, 2007

Franck Ribery Lactate Testing is currently all the buzz since Jürgen Klinsmann sharpened the media’s attention for the importance of an athletes’ fitness levels.

A footballer that gets pinched in his ear by a tiny needle is thus the must broadcast footage of a club’s training session. And that means of course: the holidays are over for our stars. A relieving sign that the football free season has to come to an end soon. It’s also the time when we get more and more analytic insights and outlooks for the new season. Hertha BSC Berlin’s new Swiss coach Lucien Favre announced, that he wants to play attractive Brazilian style football. I don’t know if he nods towards Brazil’s recent showings with that statement. It would at least seem like the more realistic option for his team. Probably his statement is also meant to comfort the fans, who have to expect that their team probably won’t be able to compete for a UEFA Cup spot or better. Leverkusen’s coach Michael Skibbe announced that they want to play attractive football as well. That’s two out of 18 already. And luckily we are still waiting for a team to announce that they want to play negative destructive football. Promises to be an awesome season. Meanwhile Skibbe also said that Leverkusen wants to compete for the title again - in two years time .

Oliver Kahn wants to do so this season already. It’s his final year at Bayern Munich and he unashamedly wants to top it of with no less than three titles. That’s DFB Cup, UEFA Cup and the Bundesliga title I presume. Luca Toni and Ribery who joined Munich’s training camp today are a bit more humble in that respect. They would be happy with just winning the UEFA Cup and the Bundesliga. Fair enough. Kahn has clear plans for his post Bayern (post football) career. His future is in Asia where he seems to be worshipped like a god. His statements where rather wobbly so he might not go and play in the J-League. But since Munich maintains a partnership with the Urawa Red Diamonds he will probably become their new mascot on the sideline. At least that’s my favourite scenario. Uli Hoeness is meanwhile on a good way to finish his squad housecleaning job. Ali Karimi whose contract wasn’t extended leaves the club on a free transfer to Qatar where he will presumably earn €4-5m a year. Surely a nice bump from his previous Bayern salary and he will get to (or has to) play more for his money as well. Santa Cruz is currently on a personal advertising tour with his national team in the Copa America. He would prefer Serie A clubs like Roma or Milan but Galatasaray Istanbul is keen to sign him as well. As long as Uli gets his money worth he will be free to go.

Stuttgart has different things to worry about. On the one hand they need to rub off Juventus’ continuous courting of their best players, on the other hand they still need to sign between one and two new strikers. The story so far: ~~Afonso~~ > ~~Gomis~~ > ~~Bravo~~ > ~~Ewerthon~~ > John Aloisi and/or Tamas Priskin. I’ll keep you posted.

Bremen needs a striker as well. Although Klaus Allofs considers the market to be overheated at the moment so he rather continues his little cat fight with northern rivals Hamburg. Both clubs would like to get their hands on Brazilian midfielder Carlos Alberto and both would prefer a loan deal. Newest chapter in this little saga is a reported 7,5 million offer by Werder Bremen, meaning that they would rather buy the player before Hamburg gets the loan deal. A mean move by Bremen because Hamburg currently can’t afford to spend that much. They are still looking to sell one or two players to get some financial leeway. And as of today they did just that by selling their talented but very average striker Benny Lauth to Hannover for €500000. Now they only need 7 million more to at least match Bremen’s offer. Hamburg’s chances to sign Alberto are also interwoven with the future of the other Benny at the club. It is believed that Feilhaber could celebrate his Bundesliga breakthrough this season, although chances would undeniable shrink with Alberto competing for the same position. His recent performances during the Gold Cup have created interest for a loan deal by some foreign clubs.

Schalke fans are still discussing whether a 18 year old (Özil) or a 19 year old (Rakitic) can actually replace their former play-maker Lincoln. Schalke would like to sign Stephen Appiah as an alternative. Although the latter seems to gamble with all the options he has. For the Turkish media he proclaimed how he likes Turkey and that he would like to stay in Istanbul. He would only leave the club if they no longer wanted him there (I’m sure some incident could be acted out to make this happen). The only option for him would be a move to the island (Britain). At the same time it’s reported that he confessed his sincerest interest for Schalke to his team mates and friends from the Ghanian national team. And luckily they are also friends with German tabloid Bild who told us all about it.

For the German football fan Spain’s league will become increasingly interesting to follow. Last season there were only the substitute Hinkel at FC Sevilla and the always injured Speedy Gonzales Odonkor at city rivals Betis who could only raise mild interest from the public. But things are changing. Christoph Metzelder has already signed a contract with Real Madrid. Bernd Schuster would like to do the same as coach but Real now expects him to pay his own transfer fee of around €400000. At the same time forget about my stupid ramblings about Hildebrand’s future. A perfectly timed article. Today Valencia announced that they signed Hildebrand for the next three years. Now it’ll be interesting to see whether he will practise his Spanish skills by screaming at his defenders on the pitch or equipped with a dictionary on the bench. And then there is the latest rumour about Leverkusen’s sidelined goalkeeper Jörg Butt making a move to Spanish midtable team Levante as well. All that’s missing is Bernd Schneider actually moving to Madrid. In that case I would probably even buy his new totally overpriced Real jersey for the fun of it.