Page 41 - Soccer360 Issue 106

THE FAB FIVE
Michelle Osei Bonsu names five Bundesliga players whose stars shone particularly brightly in 2023-24.
NICLAS FÜLLKRUG -
BORUSSIA DORTMUND
Füllkrug finished as the joint top goalscorer during the 2022-23 Bundesliga season - despite netting just 16 goals - which earned him a move to Borussia Dortmund last summer. The experienced striker proved to be a real revelation for die Schwarzgelben in both the Bundesliga and especially in the Champions League. Indeed, it was his goals against Atletico Madrid and PSG which helped the team secure their first semi-final and final appearance in the Champions League for the first time in over a decade.
ALEX GRIMALDO -
BAYER LEVERKUSEN
Signed on a free from Benfica in 2023, Alex Grimaldo was one of the key protagonists in Bayer Leverkusen’s amazing run this season. The Spanish international is now rated as among one of the best full-backs in world football due to his versatility, which was on full
Niclas Fullkrug
Alex Grimaldo
Serhou Guirassy
Lukas Hradecky
display this season as he reached double
Real Madrid
won the
come a long digits in goals scored awnaydsiancsesists.
SERHOU GUIRASSY - STUTTGART
The French-born Guinean international
ultimately ended up falling a bit off the pace in the race for the Golden Boot due to injuries. Still, no one can deny that his impressive goal-scoring form
- which saw him set several records -
did not play a huge part in Stuttgart’s amazing turnaround this season that saw them finish in third place and secure Champions League football for the first time in well over a decade.
LUKAS HRADECKY -
BAYER LEVERKUSEN
Attack-minded players naturally get much of the plaudits, but a team can’t function without a solid presence between the sticks and Hradecky was a key reason why Bayer Leverkusen boasted the strongest defensive record of all teams in the Bundesliga during the 2023-24 term. While defenders like Jonathan Tah and Jeremie Frimpong played their part, team skipper and Finland goalkeeper Hrádecký was outstanding as he managed to keep more clean sheets than any other shot- stopper in the league this season.
HARRY KANE - BAYERN MUNICH
The experienced English international generated plenty of buzz last summer when he signed for Bayern Munich in a massive deal. Although he unfortunately was unable to lead his new team to any silverware, he nonetheless enjoyed his most prolific season to date and will
at the very least add a Torjägerkanone prize for his efforts. Of course, both the player and Bayern alike will be hoping that he’ll be able to win more than just personal accolades next season.
UEFA has
very first
Champions League Cup
in 1955
Harry Kane
Afull 12 years. That is how
long it has been since
Bayern Munich have gone
a season without winning a single trophy. For well over
a decade, die Roten have turned the Bundesliga into a mostly one-horse race, which has naturally split opinion. For their fans, of course, it meant that at the very least, the team would have some silverware to add to the burnishing trophy cabinet, while for their detractors, well, it meant that the league and its title race had become so boring that they would have to look elsewhere for other intriguing storylines.
Well, football, like many other things in
life, is cyclical. Flash-forward to the 2023- 24 season and Bayern Munich are back where they were at the end of the 2011-12 campaign: they have completed a season without winning any silverware.
From being knocked out early in the DFB-Pokal to suffering an agonising - and some may say controversial - exit in the Champions League, it has been nothing short of a bitterly disappointing term for
a team who have become accustomed to always being on the winners’ podium. Even the league title, a trophy that had become their bread and butter for over a decade, has finally eluded them - although many will argue that the writing was on the wall given how Bayern barely scraped by to win it in 2022-23. But while this outcome is certainly a huge disappointment, and in some cases, an utter and absolutely shocking result
for legions of Bayern Munich fans, many
of whom will not really remember the
days that Bayern did not win at least one trophy, there are certainly a slew of other Bundesliga followers who will be happy with this outcome. And replacing them at the
top of the Bundesliga tree are a team whose extraordinary achievements have captured
FACTS
Bayer 04 Leverkusen kept their 16th clean sheet in the Bundesliga this season, equalling their club record from 2014-15.
Hoffenheim scored five goals in the first half during their
6-0 win against Darmstadt. hey never scored more than five
in any half in the top-flight before.
VfB Stuttgart have enjoyed 77% possession in the 1-0
win over FC Augsburg, setting a new club record in
a Bundesliga match since detailed data collection began in 2004-05.
SOCCER360 SUMMER 2024 39
LEFT (OPPOSITE PAGE):
Xabi Alonso
has performed miracles since taking charge at the BayArena
TOP:
Bayer Leverkusen set multiple records on their way to the Bundesliga title