Favourites Bayern Munich won the 2007/08 Bundesliga title, but there were many players who caught the eye during an action packed and exciting season in Germany. Mathew Burt runs the rule over those who enjoyed a particularly good campaign and selects his Bundesliga Team of the Season.
Adler
Westermann Bordon Demichelis Schäfer
Diego Zé Roberto Rolfes Ribéry
Toni Gomez
Goalkeeper:
1) Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen)
Last season Adler as widely regarded as the up-and-coming talent in the goalkeeping department, and this season he has lived up to that forecast by becoming the best keeper in the Bundesliga. The youngster has pulled off some amazing saves this season and rescued points for the Werkself when opposing teams probably deserved a share.
Such has been his rise this season that he has been called up into Joachim Löw’s squad for this summer’s European Championship finals with Valencia’s Timo Hildebrand missing out.
Defenders:
2) Heiko Westermann (Schalke)
Westermann started the season as back up to the settled back line of Rafinha, Bordon, Krstajic, Pander at the Veltins Arena, but by the end of the campaign was a first-choice and had earned a call-up to the German European Championships squad on the back of a superb season.
He joined during last summer from Arminia Bielefeld and grabbed the attention though his dynamism, strength in the tackle and willingness to get forward down the flanks to provide crosses for the likes of Kevin Kuranyi.
3) Marcelo José Bordon (Schalke)
Club captain Bordon has been an absolute rock for Schalke this season as they have once again been forced to act as bridesmaids as somebody else wins the Bundesliga. The centre back has led by example and been awesome in defence, while also being a constant danger going forward as his five goals this season testifies.
There has been no shortage of desire on the part of the Königsblauen captain with the only real down side coming with an apparent falling out between him and fired trainer Mirko Slomka. Nonetheless, Bordon has been one of the best defenders in the league this season.
4) Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich)
Alongside Luca Toni and Franck Ribéry, Argentine Martin Demichelis has arguably been Bayern Munich’s best player this season. It was believed that Lucio and Daniel van Buyten would be the preferred central defensive partnership, but with injury ruling the Belgian and Valerien Ismael out of the start of the season, Demichelis partnered Lucio and never relinquished the jersey.
He read the game superbly and was on hand on numerous occasions to sweep up the danger and look like he had been playing the role for his entire career. It is a huge achievement that Demichelis has usurped Lucio as the clubs best defender. One minus point was his refusal to play in midfield, which brought him a suspension from Hitzfeld, but otherwise it has been a flawless season from him.
5) Marcell Schäfer (Wolfsburg)
Felix Magath worked wonders at Wolfsburg this season taking them from a team close to relegation to one that qualified for the Uefa Cup ahead of Leverkusen and Stuttgart. One of the major plus points has been the emergence of Marcell Schäfer as a quality full back.
Signed from 1860 Munich, the youngster quickly settled into life at the Volkswagen Arena and was a near ever-present in a successful Wölfe campaign. He chipped in with six goals as four assists, and has made himself a prime candidate for German cap next season.
Midfielders:
6) Zé Roberto (Bayern Munich)
Bayern spent a lot of money in the summer, but one of their most important moves was to bring back midfielder Zé Roberto from Brazil. He was surplus to requirements under Felix Magath, but Ottmar Hitzfeld wasted no time in recruiting the talented Brazilian to his rebuilding project at the Allianz Arena.
Alongside Mark van Bommel, Zé Roberto filled the defensive role in midfield and shone for the entire season. His tackling, passing, running and contribution to attack were priceless making him one of the club’s top players as they stormed to the league title and won the German Cup. Bayern will get one more season out of him, and on the basis of this season, that could prove a god-send.
7) Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen)
Simon Rolfes has emerged as a top quality midfielder this season in a young and dynamic Bayer Leverkusen side. For a while the Werkself were looking like a genuine title contender and much of that came down to the work rate and contribution of Rolfes in midfield.
He was an ever-present in Michael Skibbe’s side scoring eight goals along the way. He even went through the entire season without picking up a single yellow card and was rewarded for his season’s achievements with a place in Joachim Löw’s provisional squad for this summer’s European Championships, where he will serve as a back up to the likes of Torsten Frings and Michael Ballack.
8) Diego (Werder Bremen)
The Brazilian has consistently been one of the league’s best players since his arrival at the Weser Stadion from Porto and this season has been no exception. A little off form at the start of the season due to the Copa America, Diego’s return to form coincided with a return to form for Werder Bremen as a whole.
The mercurial playmaker became the Bundesliga’s highest scoring midfielder with 13 goals to go with the 11 assists he provided for his team mates as Werder became the league’s highest goal scorers with a mammoth 75 goals.
9) Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich)
Not so much a revelation, but Ribéry was the absolute star turn in his first season in the Bundesliga. He arrived as Bayern’s all-time record signing, but come the end of the season, there was nobody involved with the club, who didn’t believe that the club had got their monies worth from their €25 million outlay.
‘Super Franck’ looked to be on a different level at times as his dazzled with his direct attacking and scintillating skills. He had opposition defences quaking as they struggled to cope with him all season and was manna from heaven for Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose who were the main beneficiaries of his ability.
Forwards:
10) Luca Toni (Bayern Munich)
The goals speak for themselves this season for Luca Toni. ‘Il Bomber’ enjoyed a fantastic debut season for the Bavarians firing them to the league and Cup double and very nearly the Uefa Cup too. 24 Bundesliga goals in 31 appearances beat the previous best debut season from a Bayern striker (Roy Makaay) and made him one of the most prolific hit-men in Europe.
He shared to accolade for Uefa Cup top scorer with Pavel Pogrebnyak of Zenit. There was a period towards the end of the season when Toni literally couldn’t stop scoring and he deserved won the prestigious ‘Torschützenkanone’ awarded to the Bundesliga’s leading goal scorer.
11) Mario Gomez (Stuttgart)
Last season’s Player of the Year in Germany didn’t have such a successful season in terms of league position as the Swabians relinquished their league title, but he certainly had a better year in terms of personal achievement.
Gomez scored 19 goals in just 25 matches giving him an almost identical strike rate to Luca Toni. The fact that he didn’t receive the dazzling service that the Italian got makes his achievement even more remarkable. After recovering from injury, the VfB striker scored 12 times in the second half of the season to put a more positive spin on an otherwise disappointing season for Stuttgart.
Squad Players:
There are as usual only eleven spots in the Team of the Season with numerous players missing out, who have had super seasons for the respective clubs and they make it into the ‘squad’ in recognition of their season’s work.
Schalke keeper Manuel Neuer has seen his reputation and value both increase with some superb displays between the posts for the Königsblauen this season. The 22 year old was highly impressive in the Bundesliga and was a vital cog in the Schalke team that reached the quarter finals of the Champions League. He looks set to go head-to-head with Rene Adler for the number one spot in the German national team in the coming years.
Werder Bremen’s German international Per Mertesacker has another highly impressive and consistent performance. His performances even drew speculation that Bayern Munich would be looking to bring the tall, elegant centre back to the Allianz Arena.
Christian Lell of Bayern Munich got better and better as the season progressed and finished up as a key player for the Bavarians in their ‘double’ winning campaign. Another full back to impress throughout the 2007/08 season was Gonzalo Castro of Bayer Leverkusen. A regular starter for Germany in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Castro should consider himself very unlucky to have lost out on a place in the finals squad. Based on league performances, I believe he merited a place.
Andreas Wolf of Nürnberg didn’t deserve to be relegated with his high level showings this season. There will no doubt be a number of Bundesliga clubs more than willing to sign him up for next season
In midfield Schalke’s Jermaine Jones really came to the fore this season as he made himself an important cog in the Königsblauen midfield and even broke into the German national side due to his high level of performance. Tamas Hajnal of Karlsruhe was a revelation for the Baden side who took the league by storm in the first half of the season. Hajnal secured a move to Borussia Dortmund on the back of his performances.
Many fans of the Bundesliga will no doubt be screaming for the inclusion of both Rafael van der Vaart and Mladen Petric in this ‘Team of the Season’ and they haven’t been forgotten. Van der Vaart was superb in the first half of the season, but fell away a little in the second as HSV dropped out of the title race and had to settle for a place in the Uefa Cup. That said 12 goals and 10 assists is still a fantastic contribution in what is in all likelihood his final season with the Hanseaten.
Croatian forward Mladen Petric impressed straight away at Borussia Dortmund and is already being tracked by the likes of Juventus, who have quickly come to appreciate the quality of the former FC Basel man.
Despite playing for an under-performing Hertha Berlin, Serbian striker Marko Pantelic still managed to bag 13 goals and cement his reputation as an out-and-out goal scorer. Hertha found it very difficult to win without him in the side.
Many viewers were surprised that last season’s Bundesliga top scorer Theofanis Gekas didn’t get as much action as expected at Bayer Leverkusen, but that was largely down to the form of Stefan Kießling. The young striker hit nine league goals as well as another seven in the Uefa Cup. Deservedly won a call-up into the German squad for the summer’s European Championships.
Finally Stanislav Sestak enjoyed a fantastic first season in the Bundesliga and did well to cope with the burden of replacing Gekas. The Slovakian number nine hit thirteen goals as Bochum achieved Bundesliga football again next season and contributed nine assists as well.
source: goal.com
