0. The combined number of goals Bayern’s strike duo Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni scored so far this season.

1. The number of goals former Bayern striker Lukas Podolski scored so far this season. Lukas Podolski joined Cologne in the summer, after Klose and Toni were continuously given the nod ahead of him. That should show ‘em.

10. Hertha stopped their losing streak against Wolfsburg, but kept their run of games without a victory. In 1990/1991 Hertha managed 18 successive games without a victory and were duly relegated.

11. Leverkusen scored 11 of their 21 goals from set pieces.

101. Mario Gomez is the highest valued player in the Bundesliga’s official trading card game with 101 points.

619. Tim Wiese has kept a clean sheet for 619 minutes and counting. Remember, he did so while playing for Werder Bremen. Any other season this would have equalled setting the difficulty to legendary. This season though, Werder Bremen’s defense has gone through a remarkable transformation – testing the boundaries of plausibility. It’s still an amazing achievement. During this weekend’s 2-0 victory over Hoffenheim, Wiese even saved a penalty, earning him extra style-points.

Tim Wiese has now surpassed goalkeeping legends Jens Lehmann (Schalke 04 / 1996/97 / 601 minutes) and Uli Stein (HSV / 1985/86 / 603 minutes) to make it into the Bundesliga’s All-Time Top 5 and is 23 minutes away from breaking the record of another famous Werder Bremen goalkeeper. The team which will try to deny him next weekend will be VfL Bochum.

315. Bayern’s goalless streak lasted 315 minutes and was ended by Thomas Müller, 42 minutes into Bayern’s match against Freiburg. That’s pretty much all you need to know about Bayern’s performance.

8. Hertha’s abysmal defense helped Nuremberg to a comfortable 3-0 victory and Hertha to a club record 8th Bundesliga defeat in a row. Hertha have now tied Wuppertaler SV’s 8 consecutive defeats (1974/75) and are two defeats short of the Bundesliga’s All-Time Top 3 comprising Arminia Bielefeld (1999/2000), Nuremberg (1983/84) and the officially worst Bundesliga side ever Tasmania 1900 Berlin (1965/66). None of the clubs mentioned here escaped and were relegated. Judging from current form, you must wonder why exactly Hertha should be the exception.

26. Hertha’s defense has conceded 26 goals in 9 matches. Last season, Hertha’s defense had conceded 26 goals after 22 matches.

83. Leverkusen’s central defender Sami Hyypiä won 83% of his one-on-one situations. The other 17% accurately reflect the total amount of chances Hamburg managed to create throughout the match.

Bonuses Champions League 2008/2009 – 2009/2010
Group Stage (fixed): €5.4m – €7.1m
Group Stage Victory: €600k – €800k
Group Stage Draw: €300k – €400k
Round of 16: €2.2m – €3m
Quarterfinal: €2.5m – €3.3m
Semifinal: €3m – €4m
Losing Finalist: €4m – €5.2m
Winner: €7m – €9m
Theoretical Maximum: €23.7m – €31.2m

Bonuses UEFA Cup/Europa League 2008/2009 – 2009/2010
Group Stage (fixed): €115k – €900k
Group Stage Victory: €40k – €120k
Group Stage Draw: €20k – €60k
Round of 32: €70k – €180k
Round of 16: €70k – €270k
Quarterfinal: €300k – €360k
Semifinal: €600k – €630k
Losing Finalist: €1.5m – €2m
Winner: €2.5m – €3m
Theoretical Maximum: €3.815m (CL 6.2x more) – €6.06m (CL 5.1x more)

Now, I was probably a bit harsh on the Europa League. The early stages of the competition have been boosted quite a bit, while the quarter- and semifinal bonuses remained virtually untouched. The new group stage also means three guaranteed home games compared to two in the old UEFA Cup. The gap between the two European competitions remains immense though and is further widened with the help of the somewhat complicated market pool.

The Market Pool
Apart from bonus payments, clubs also receive money from the market pool, which makes up 40% of the money UEFA allocated for the Champions League or Europa League respectively. The money from this pool is paid out to the clubs in relation to factors like the amount the club’s home market contributed to the market pool, how far the club advanced in the competition in relation to other clubs from the same league and so on and so on. In case of the old UEFA Cup it’s also worth pointing out that UEFA’s central marketing didn’t kick in until the quarterfinal stage, so only clubs that participated from this stage onwards were paid out. On the other hand, clubs were free to market themselves in the early stages and ideally earn good money from TV rights (large fanbase, attractive draw permitting). The new Europa League is marketed centrally from the group stage onwards.

To give you a better feel, here are some real life examples of money Bundesliga clubs earned last season (combined bonuses and market pool):

Bayern Munich €34.566m (CL)
Group Stage Fixed: €5.4m, Group Stage Performance: €3m, Round of 16: €2.2m, Quarterfinals: €2.5m, Market Pool: €21.466m

Werder Bremen €22.272m (CL)
Group Stage Fixed: €5.4m, Group Stage Performance: €1.8m, Market Pool: €15.072m, Total: €22.272m

Hertha Berlin €275k (UC)
Group Stage Fixed: €215k, Group Stage Performance: €60k

Hamburger SV €3.7m (UC)
Fixed: €215k, Performance: €120k, Round of 32: €70k, Round of 16: €70k, Quarterfinal: €300k, Semifinal: €600k, Market Pool: €2.339.850

Werder Bremen €7m (UC)
Quarter Final: €300k, Semifinal: €600k, Losing Finalist: €1.5m, Market Pool: €4.654.850

Both Bayern and Bremen benefitted from Schalke’s Champions League qualification failure and thus only had to share the market pool between themselves. Bayern additionally benefitted from Bremen failing to survive the easiest of groups. Bremen’s UEFA Cup final appearance meant they earned almost twice as much in the UEFA Cup alone than their northern rivals Hamburg. The €22m they got from the Champions League just adds further insult to injury. In case of the puny numbers by Hertha and Hamburg it’s worth mentioning that both were able to sell some TV rights for their home matches, which don’t show up here. In case of Hertha there were the games against Benfica and Galatasaray and in case of Hamburg there were games against Ajax, Aston Villa, Nijmegen and Galatasaray. Both clubs probably got between €500k to a maximum of €1m for each game.

Sources: 1 – 2

The Bundesliga currently employs 497 players, of which 260 players are foreigners (52,3%). That’s the fourth highest percentage in Europe, only topped by the Swiss Super League (52,9%), the Portuguese SuperLiga (53,8%) and the English Premier League (62,3%). To complete the numbers: Serie A (39,7%), Ligue 1 (38,6%) and Primera Division (36,8%). The latter three leagues still have limitations regarding the number of non-EU players allowed, which to a degree explains the relatively low percentages compared to the Bundesliga and Premier League. So far so good.

But where do they come from? I dug into the extensive player database of transfermarkt.de to find out. I focused most of my attention on the Bundesliga of course and since the transfer window is about to open again soon, all of these numbers will be terribly outdated in just a couple of months.

Note: In cases of dual citizenship, only the first nationality is considered.

1. Brazil (35 players)
2. Croatia (12 players)
3. Serbia (11 players)
4. France, Switzerland and Czech Republic (10 players)
5. Netherlands, Turkey, Bosnia & Herzegovina (9 players)
6. Poland (7 players)
7. Portugal, Austria, Romania, Cameroon (6 players)
8. Denmark, Italy, Cote d`Ivoir, Greece, USA (5 players)
9. Canada, Japan, Sweden, Peru, Hungary, Argentina, Ghana, Bulgaria (4 players)
10. Finland, Belgium, Slovakia, Albania, Georgia, Nigeria (3 players)

Brazil are the world’s biggest exporter of football players and the Bundesliga is one of their best customers – the fourth best to be precise. The clear number one is unsurprisingly the Portuguese SuperLiga (131), followed by Italy’s Serie A (41) and the Turkish SüperLig (37). To fill in the rest of Europe’s Big 5: Ligue 1 and La Liga (26), Premier League (20). Croatia leads the way of ex-Yugoslavian countries, who if involuntarily reunited, could challenge Brazil for the top spot in this ranking. Players from the Balkans are certainly all the rage among Bundesliga scouts at the moment. Another clear pattern seems to be, that all of Germany’s neighboring countries have a relatively high amount of players plying their trade in the Bundesliga. If it wasn’t for Norway’s Tippeligaen (6), the Bundesliga and Premier League would be the joint top destination of American players. I developed a theory about the connection between major US, British or NATO military bases in Germany and the clubs US players tend to join but had no time to follow it through. I got as far as: Mönchengladbach / Joint Headquarters (British Army/NATO) and Kaiserslautern / Ramstein Air Base (US Army). Cameroon lead the Bundesliga’s African delegation. The country was one of the few short lived German colonies prior to the first World War, but I would presume that has no impact on todays player transfers. Having five Italian players playing in the Bundesliga is a quite new development. I think when Luca Toni arrived, he was the first Italian player to join the Bundesliga in about half a century. The Bundesliga is currently the top destination for Japanese players, also thanks to VfL Wolfsburg who have recently signed two Japanese players and are hot on the heels of Kaisuke Honda to make it three. The signings seem to be independent from a possible soft spot for Japanese players by Felix Magath though, as he is probably already working on Schalke’s summer transfer strategy. It could have something to do with Volkswagen trying to better position itself on the Japanese market? To say the Bundesliga is the top destination for Turkish players is more or less correct as well – less because most of the players didn’t have to move to Germany, as they were born there in the first place.

1. VfL Wolfsburg (60pts / +27gd)
Waiting for the title since: 1945, when the club was founded
Run-in: Dortmund (H), Hannover (A), Bremen (H)
The Dortmund game may decide whether Wolfsburg can win their first ever Bundesliga title or not. Wolfsburg are unbeaten at home, while Dortmund have hardly been beaten all season. There could be a draw in this one. The away game against Hannover is a Niedersachsen Derby, but the fact that this is the first time you learned about this derby, tells you that it’s probably not big enough for Hannover to go all out and ruin Wolfsburg’s title chances. Though, you never know – maybe this game could be the start of a long and passionate fiendish rivalry. Bremen will return from either a UEFA Cup triumph or defeat and have another cup final coming up. You have a feeling that spoiling Wolfsburg’s party is not a top priority for them.

2. Bayern Munich (60pts / +25gd)
Waiting for the title for: 12 long, long months
Run-in: Leverkusen (H), Hoffenheim (A), Stuttgart (H)
In the past, Leverkusen always travelled to the Allianz Arena ambitious and full of confidence and left with deflated egos and zero points. The only reason why it could be different this time around is because Leverkusen no longer have any ambitions or confidence. The away game against Hoffenheim could pose a more realistic threat for Bayern though. Hoffenheim, despite their poor run of form, seem motivated to end the season on a high and take revenge for the defeat in Munich last year. They will of course still miss Ibisevic and his replacement Boubacar Sanogo is someone who can turn the game in Bayern’s favor and not the other way round. The game against Stuttgart could turn out be a real showdown and title decider, presuming Bayern and Stuttgart take six points from their previous two matches and I wouldn’t make any predictions in this case.

3. Hertha Berlin (59pts / +10gd)
Waiting for the title since: 1931
Run-in: Cologne (A), Schalke (H), Karlsruhe (A)
Cologne are in safe waters and miss several key players. While Hertha had problems dominating and beating sides from the bottom of the table, I still can’t see anything but three points for Berlin here. The game against Schalke could go either way. Schalke may no longer have anything to play for, but are the kind of side which isn’t vulnerable to Hertha’s counter attacks and they had very little trouble beating Hertha last year. If Hertha beat Schalke they can win the title. The game against Karlsruhe could be a serious test for the fan-friendship between the two clubs – unless Karlsruhe are already confirmed to go down.

4. VfB Stuttgart (58pts / +18gd)
Waiting for the title since: 2007
Run-in: Schalke (A), Cottbus (H), Bayern (A)
The games against Schalke and Cottbus could be tricky, which is my way of saying that I expect six points for Stuttgart but don’t really trust them yet, despite their demolition of Wolfsburg. The best result Stuttgart could get in Munich in recent years was a draw, but then again there were so many clubs, coaches and players who overcame their Bayern jinx this season, that Stuttgart could just as well go there and beat them for an even unlikelier title win than in 2007.

5. Borussia Dortmund (55pts / +20gd)
Waiting for the title since: 2002
Run-in: Wolfsburg (A), Bielefeld (H), Mönchengladbach (A)
With Hamburg hot on their heels and with the easier run-in, Dortmund can’t really afford to lose or draw any of their remaining fixtures. The team is on a club record winning streak, though I have doubts whether they’ll be the first to beat Wolfsburg in Wolfsburg this season. Two relegation threatened sides might put up quite a fight, especially Bielefeld are difficult to play, but Dortmund look too strong to drop any points against them.

6. Hamburger SV (55 pts / 0gd)
Waiting for the title since: 1982
Run-in: Bochum (H), Cologne (H), Frankfurt (A)
You’ve got to feel sorry for Martin Jol’s men. In a bit over two and a half weeks their fierce rivals Werder Bremen turned an excellent season into a bitterly disappointing one. Their chances to win the title are purely mathematical and their chances to play in Europe at all next season could rely on the outcome of the Wolfsburg – Dortmund match. The team’s remaining fixtures all look very easy on paper so it’s not too bold to predict a full nine points here. The psychological blow of the Nothern Derby disaster could stand in their way though.

To round off this post, here’s quick look at the snail race at the bottom of the table:

14. VfL Bochum (28pts / -16gd)
In the Bundesliga since: 2006
Run-in: Hamburg (A), Frankfurt (H), Cologne (A)
I expected Bochum to have booked the tickets for another season of Bundesliga football a while ago. Marcel Koller’s team played some good football and more importantly got results to show for it, different to the first half of the season. With games against Frankfurt and Cologne coming up, I still expect them to convert one of those two matchballs…

15. Borussia Mönchengladbach (27pts / -19gd)
In the Bundesliga since: 2008
Run-in: Cottbus (A), Leverkusen (A), Dortmund (H)
I think Mönchengladbach have to win in Cottbus to have a chance to stay in the league. Leverkusen will be motivated to end their Düsseldorf adventure with one damn home win, so I don’t think Gladbach can expect any gifts from them there unfortunately. Dortmund will most probably be fighting for the Europa League spots (or even more…) and look too strong for Gladbach. I personally hope they stay in the league though, and maybe that’s why I’m so pessimistic.

16. Arminia Bielefeld (27pts / -19gd)
In the Bundesliga since: 2004
Run-in: Hoffenheim (H), Dortmund (A), Hannover (H)
Hoffenheim and Hannover at home will certainly be the key games for Bielefeld. Artur Wichniarek could be the key player in these games after his return from injury. And after all, how can something get relegated which doesn’t even exist?

17. Energie Cottbus (27pts / -27gd)
In the Bundesliga since: 2006
Run-in: Mönchengladbach (H), Stuttgart (A), Leverkusen (H)
With home games against Mönchengladbach and Leverkusen, Cottbus have it all in their own hands. I’m a bit unsure about what Leverkusen side will show up. They might be determined to get a positive result as a confidence boost ahead of the cup final.

18. Karlsruher SC (23pts / -29gd)
In the Bundesliga since: 2007
Run-in: Hannover (H), Bremen (A), Berlin (H)
There is a little glimmer of hope left for Karlsruhe to at least make it to the relegation play-offs. This glimmer stands in stark contrast to their poor performance against Dortmund though. Hannover and Bremen no longer have anything to play for and maybe Karlsruhe are just another freak goal away from an unlikely great escape.

I stripped as much complexity from all of this in the quick guide, and tried to not make too many mistakes in the complicated one.

The Quick Guide
Just make sure to finish first or second in the table. This guarantees you Champions League group stage football and a nice fat sum of money from the UEFA to sign new superstars or keep the old ones.

At the moment this privilege would go to Wolfsburg and Hertha, though with at least three more clubs hot on their heels they may also want to take a peek at the complicated guide…

The Complicated Guide

3rd Place – Champions League Qualification
A two-legged knock-out tie to decide whether your team plays in the Champions League or Europa League group stage. This is a small improvement over previous seasons, where teams losing this tie would still need to play an additional knockout tie to make it to the UEFA Cup group stage. So managers can at least budget with the Europa League group stage. The UEFA has yet to announce how much money they’ll pay to the clubs competing in their new competition. It’s presumably a tiny sum and compared to the Champions League it’s presumably a microscopic sum even.

4th Place – Europa League Play-Off
A two-legged knock-out tie to qualify for the Europa League group stage.

5th Place – Europa League 3rd Qualification Round
A two-legged knock-out tie to advance to the Europa League play-off round. UEFA could have probably just called the play-off round 4th qualification round instead, but that would have been too easy – and admittedly not a lot less confusing anyway.

Intertoto Cup – Dead and Buried
Finally.

DFB-Pokal Winner – Europa League Play-Off
There are some special cases connected to the DFB-Pokal. If the cup winner has finished the season in the top three (Champions League) the losing finalist will compete in the Europa League play-off round instead. If the losing finalist also finished in the top five the Europa League spot will go back to the league allowing the 6th placed team to compete. If the cup winner has finished 4th or 5th in the league the Europa League spot will go back to league as well. None of this will be the case this season though.

UEFA Cup Special Cases
The UEFA grants the UEFA Cup winner direct qualification for the new Europa League group stage but only in the case that the club couldn’t qualify for any European competition through the league. Ahead of this week’s semi-final this means that both Bremen and Hamburg have one more lifeline to get to Europe. In fact if you want to see as many Bundesliga clubs as possible in next seasons European competitions you should hope that a) Bremen/Hamburg win the cup b) Bremen/Hamburg don’t qualify through the league or DFB-Pokal.

UEFA Fair Play Ranking
An additional Europa League spot would be available to the fair play kings of the European leagues finishing in the top three of UEFA’s Fair Play ranking. But based on UEFA’s provisional ranking the Bundesliga won’t be one of them this season.

OK, I think everything should be as clear as mud now.

1. Serie A and La Liga (10)
SSC Napoli: Edoardo Reja > Roberto Donadoni
US Lecce: Mario Beretta > Luigi De Canio
Bologna FC: Sinisa Mihajlovic > Giuseppe Papadopulo
Bologna FC: Daniele Arrigoni > Sinisa Mihajlovic
Reggina Calcio: Nevio Orlandi > Giuseppe Pillon
Reggina Calcio: Giuseppe Pillon > Nevio Orlandi
Torino FC: Giovanni de Biasi > Walter Novellino
Torino FC: Walter Novellino > Giancarlo Camolese
Chievo Verona: Giuseppe Iachini > Domenico Di Carlo
US Palermo: Stefano Colantuono > Davide Ballardini

Real Madrid: Bernd Schuster > Juande Ramos
Atletico Madrid: Javier Aguirre > Abel Resino
UD Almeria: Gonzalo Arconada Echarri > Hugo Sanchez
Espanyol Barcelona: Tintin Marquez > Jose Manuel Esnal
Espanyol Barcelona: Jose Manuel Esnal > Mauricio Pochettino
Real Betis Sevilla: Francisco Chaparro Jara > Jose Maria Nogues
Getafe: Victor Munoz > Jose Miguel Gonzalez
CD Numancia: Sergije Kresic > Jose Rojo Martin
CA Osasuna: Jose Angel Ziganda Lakuntza > Jose Antonio Camacho
Recreativo Huelva: Manuel Zambrano > Lucas Alcaraz

3. Premier League (9)
Blackburn: Paul Ince > Sam Allardyce
Chelsea: Luiz Felipe Scolari > Guus Hiddink
Newcastle: Kevin Keegan > Joe Kinnear
Newcastle: Joe Kinnear > Alan Shearer
Portsmouth: Harry Redknapp > Tony Adams
Portsmouth: Tony Adams > Paul Hart
Sunderland: Roy Keane > Ricky Sbragia
Tottenham: Juande Ramos > Harry Redknapp
West Ham: Alan Curbishley > Gianfranco Zola

4. Bundesliga and Ligue 1 (4)
Bayern Munich: Jürgen Klinsmann > Jupp Heynckes
Schalke 04: Fred Rutten > Mike Büskens
Stuttgart: Armin Veh > Markus Babbel
Mönchengladbach: Jos Luhukay > Hans Meyer

Le Havre: Jean-Marc Nobilo > Frederic Hantz
Le Mans: Yves Bertucci > Daniel Jeandupeux
FC Nantes: Michel Der Zakarian > Elie Baup
AS Saint Etienne: Laurent Roussey > Alain Perrin

Note: I tried to exclude caretaker managers, though I couldn’t verify the status in all cases. I included managers who left on their own terms for the same reason. So this list is more about coaching fluctuation than job security actually. It isn’t a list about accurate use of accents and umlauts in names either.

vs Bundesliga Report 2007/2008: The above numbers add up to a combined revenue of €1527,6m, while the official revenue reported by the Bundesliga is €1566,931m. This might have to do with Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich were co-owners of the Allianz Arena but recently bought the shares held by 1860 Munich. In turn Bayern released two revenue figures: the one quoted above and one + Allianz Arena which is roundabout €40m higher. In that case the revenues of the 17 other clubs are more or less correct. The Bundesliga also reported that 15 of 18 clubs turned a profit as compared to 18 of 18 in the previous season. So three clubs from the above list must have had a negative result.

vs Deloitte Football Money League Deloitte further “correct” their numbers by excluding none football related income as well as one offs like transfer fees.

Warning: Revenue figures of football clubs are like possession stats after a football match. A team dominating possession doesn’t necessarily win the game and isn’t necessarily the better team. After all, Manchester City were ranked 20th in Deloitte’s money league but are the richest club in the world…

The 2. Bundesliga revenues of the three clubs promoted to the Bundesliga: Borussia Mönchengladbach (Turnover €68,7m, Profit €6,8m), FC Cologne (€42,6m, Loss €2,27m), TSG Hoffenheim (Turnover €24m, Loss €5,2m)

Bonus
Turnover 1. Bundesliga 2007/2008: €1566,931m (€1456,783m in 2006/2007, +7,3%)
Turnover 2. Bundesliga 2007/2008: €367,508m (€291,032m in 2006/2007, +23,3%)
Turnover Bundesliga 2007/2008: €1934,439m (€1747,815m in 2006/2007, +10,7%)

Combined debt: €469,453m (€510,323m in 2006/2007)
Wages to Turnover Ratio: 40%

Hertha’s coach Lucien Favre meanwhile keeps insisting that there is no secret: “There is no secret. We work step by step.” That last sentence sounds like an empty phrase at first, but starts to make more sense once you know what Favre is actually working on – step by step.

Mastercoach, a company specialized in analyzing football matches and maybe in need of some PR, used the current perplexity of the fans, media and Hertha’s competition to release some numbers, which for a change tell you something about Hertha and not their opposition.

Time on the ball: Last season the average time a Hertha player spent on the ball to stop, control and pass it was 1,9 seconds compared to 1,1 seconds this season. Here’s something that Favre and his players have been working on. This makes Hertha the fastest passing team in the Bundesliga and would place them among the best in the Champions League. Hertha’s “fastest” match was against Bayern (2-1), where they only needed 0,9 seconds to circulate the ball. Their closest rivals in the Bundesliga are Hoffenheim (1,3 seconds) and Stuttgart (1,4 seconds).

Passing accuracy: Hertha didn’t sacrifice accuracy for speed though. In fact they managed to increase the accuracy of vertical passes from 55% back in August/September to 60% now. A very good value compared to other Bundesliga sides, but still a bit short of the best teams around the continent. They should start aiming at 70% over the next couple of months.

Mileage: The average mileage of a Hertha player gradually increased from 9,7 km in August, 10,3 km in September and up to 10,8 km in October – a 1,1 km increase. What’s interesting about these numbers is probably that it doesn’t so much demonstrate an increase in stamina, but a psychological effect. Josip Simunic recently said in an interview, that one of the things that are different this season is that the players now understand what the coach wants and trust him. In other words, they realized that his training methods and tactical drills aren’t just his way of doing things, but actually improve the performance of the team. Hertha like to attack in numbers, even when they counter attack there are usually 4-5 players going forward. Once Hertha lose the ball they are also very quick to get behind the ball again and restore their defensive organization. A high mileage is very helpful for this approach.

At the end of the day these numbers don’t fully explain why Hertha top the table either, but it’s a new approach for a change.

Disclaimer: It has to be said, that clubs usually don’t release specific details about the transfers, so the transfer fees are often educated guesses. A transfer might also involve additional fees and bonus payments, not directly linked to the transfer fee. Having a club’s wage bill available alongside those numbers wouldn’t hurt either. So the following list has a certain amount of distortion built in, but should make for an interesting read nonetheless.

1. Bayern Munich: €114.800.000 (27 players, Ø27 years old)
Unsurprisingly Bayern lead this ranking by quite a margin. Over €220m just in UEFA price money for nine consecutive Champions League appearances and all the positive synergetic effects connected to it make it possible. Bayern’s competitors have just been too inconsistent in their performances to build up comparable spending power. The likes of Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger were very valuable freebies from Bayern’s own youth though. €80m of that sum have been spent last season alone.
2. VfL Wolfsburg: €65.560.000 (32 players, Ø25.4 years old)
I expected Wolfsburg to be up there somewhere, but not in second place. Wolfsburg just barely avoided relegation in 2006/2007 before Felix Magath took over to give the team a proper and expensive face lift.
3. Hamburger SV: €52.525.000 (28 players, Ø24.4 years old)
Hamburg were investing in affordable and promising talents until Rafael van der Vaart’s transfer set off a domino effect, which saw Hamburg invest €30m in promising and slightly less affordable talents. I have high expectations here, especially since they have yet to integrate players with fancy names like Thiago Neves.
4. Schalke 04: €51.736.000 (28 players, Ø26 years old)
Schalke had been on a transfer diet for a while, to be able to cover the costs for their new stadium et al. A good run in the Champions League has allowed them to spend €10m on Farfan and waste €3m each on Albert Streit and Carlos Großmüller. Prior to that Schalke’s bargain hunting bought them the likes of Ivan Rakitic for €3m and Rafinha for €5m.
5. Werder Bremen: €45.200.000 (30 players, Ø24.4 years old)
Bremen might want to consider increasing their transfer bill a bit in the winter to fix some holes in their defense. Should the season end in a disaster nonetheless, Bremen would be able to recoup every single Euro of the €45m they spent by selling Diego (€6m) and Mesut Özil (€3,5m) to Manchester City. €8m flop Carlos Alberto has not been included, since he’s on loan in Brazil.
6. Bayer Leverkusen: €36.834.000 (26 players, Ø24.1 years old)
The €10m summer signing of Renato Augusto makes up over a quarter of Leverkusen’s transfer bill, while Patrick Helmes joined them on a free transfer. Rudi Völler has done a good job building a very promising young team over the years. He was also lucky that none of their best talents have been snatched away by a bigger fish yet.
7. Borussia Dortmund: €35.375.000 (28 players, Ø26.3 years old)
Dortmund’s €35m are equally distributed between older players who have been through the dark times (financially), and a couple of promising young talents (i.e. Kuba and Subotic for €3m each) who look like having a bright future ahead of them.
8. 1899 Hoffenheim: €29.800.000 (24 players, Ø24.1 years old)
And here’s our “fairytale” team in 8th position already and only one or two transfers away from Leverkusen and Dortmund. Based on this ranking you can actually expect this team to do well in the league. That it’s currently enough to top the table is obviously testament to the great work of Ralf Rangnick. He had the slight advantage that he could basically built his team from scratch, giving him a tailor-made solution for the brand of football he wants to play. It’ll be interesting to see, whether this team can really mount a serious title challenge. Their new neighbors, one below in the rankings, might be proof that it’s possible.
9. VfB Stuttgart: €25.050.000 (26 players, Ø25.5 years old)
Stuttgart have won the Bundesliga in 2006/2007 with a mix of free transfers (Hitzelsperger), smart transfers (Pardo, Hilbert and Osorio) and academy players (Gomez, Khedira, Tasci). They even needed a bit less money than they paid for their current squad. They didn’t need to play extra UEFA Cup or Champions League matches either. Maybe Hoffenheim can emulate that feat? While at it: why couldn’t Stuttgart emulate their feat?
10. Hertha BSC Berlin: €22.730.000 (28 players, Ø24.4 years old)
Lucien Favre has so far managed to turn Hertha into one of the biggest overachievers compared to their spending, alongside Leverkusen and Hoffenheim. Hertha might have even more to offer than their current 5th place ranking, should they ever overcome their injury misery. €3m signing Gojko Kacar seems to be on his way to superstardom.
11. Hannover 96: €17.550.000 (27 players, Ø26.6 years old)
Hannover had hoped they could compete for the UEFA Cup spots, but €2.5m for Jan Schlaudraff and €0 for Mikael Forssell wasn’t enough.
12. Eintracht Frankfurt: €16.525.000 (30 players, Ø25.4 years old)
Frankfurt fought for their place in the Bundesliga for a couple of season’s by relying almost entirely on free transfers and academy players. They recently added some promising talents like Fenin, Caio (not so much in retrospect), Korkmaz and Bellaid. Frankfurt’s coach Friedhelm Funkel hasn’t managed to take the squad to the next level though, and they are currently close to the relegation zone.
13. Borussia Mönchengladbach: €15.675.000 (28 players, Ø26.7 years old)
For some reason (ex-)Gladbach coach Jos Luhukay took his 2. Bundesliga winning team and rotated players and tactics until the team was heading deep into relegation trouble. The new coaching duo of Hans Meyer and Christian Ziege will now try and get them out of there again and prove that they invested all the money into more than just a good second division team.
14. FC Cologne: €9.050.000 (30 players, Ø26.3 years old)
Cologne built their second division squad using free transfers through Christoph Daum’s Turkey connections. Novakovic (€1.4m) and Helmes (academy) did the necessary goal scoring. In the Bundesliga, Cologne have added Geromel (€2,5m) and Petit (free) through their new Portugal connection and don’t concede a lot of goals in return. Since Helmes left, Cologne aren’t scoring a lot of goals anymore either. Cologne’s squad investment of €9m could be easily recouped already by selling Geromel.
15. VfL Bochum: €8.800.000 (29 players, Ø27.3 years old)
Bochum enjoyed a series of great signings, buying Gekas for €500.000 and selling him for €4.7m to Leverkusen, replacing him with the similarly effective Sestak for just €750.000, while landing a marketing coup with Japanese superstar Shinji Ono. This type of transfer voodoo was possible thanks to the talent of sporting director Stefan Kuntz, who then decided to join his old love FC Kaiserslautern in the second division. Kaiserslautern avoided relegation to the third division, and another set of smart transfers later they’re topping the table of the second division. Bochum’s signings meanwhile have lost their special touch and couldn’t really impress this season.
16. Arminia Bielefeld: €6.400.000 (28 players, Ø26.4 years old)
Bielefeld’s far and wide best player King Arthur Wichniarek was a freebie from Hertha.
17. Energie Cottbus: €3.915.000 (31 players, Ø27.2 years old)
I wrote the title of this blog post, before I had compiled the numbers but fully expecting that Cottbus would inherit the 18th spot in this ranking. Well, they don’t. As expected, the vast majority of their signings are free transfers, but they actually managed to scrape together almost €4m for a few more expensive transfers. Cottbus also invested some of their Bundesliga money to pay off all remaining debts and upgraded and renovated their stadium. So, in case there won’t be another miracle and Cottbus will go down to the second division, then they will do it with a complete financial and infrastructural makeover earned during their Bundesliga adventure.
18. Karlsruher SC: €1.620.000 (23 players, Ø26.5 years old)
Here is last season’s surprise team, and seeing their total squad investment makes this achievement all the more impressive. Karlsruhe paid those €1.6m for four players, everyone else joined the team on a free transfer, loan or came through the youth system.

Data polled from: transfermarkt.de