It´s propably that he had the 4th highest average rating in the major german soccer paper (Kicker), but i can´t check right now. By all acounts he had a great run though, hope he can sustain it as i´ve grown fond of his club due to living relatively close and getting to see a couple games per year.
Brek Shea was a legend for me in one of the former FM versions if i recall correctly, glad to see he´s not just a mythological figure now (like other former FM great wonderkids)
German Bundesliga is about to start this weekend, tonight defending champion (and awesomnest team ever
) Borussia Dortmund will start at home againsg Hamburger SV who have undergone a complete rebuild. Game starts at 20,30 in Dortmund, which should be 2.30 pm eastern time if anyone wants to look for a stream (there should be lots, since like a million TV stations are broadcasting, also GolTV which aparently is broadcasting in the US)
Dunno if anyone is interested, but bare with me as i try to hold in my excitement until tonight
Last years shooting star Shinji Kagawa is back (was injured the 2nd half of the season) and allready looked awesome in the preseason matches as is captain Sebastian Kehl (who has been injured for the majority of 2 seasons now). Lucas Barios returned from the Copa with a muscle injury and is out 5 weeks, Marcel Schmelzer also out still ...
They lost Nuri Sahin to Real Madrid, but added a couple promising players :
-Ivan Perisic : 22 year old versatile attacking midfielder that reminds me of a young Michael Ballack (long and lanky with good technique and a nose for the goal)
- Ilkay Gündogan : 20 year old central midfielder who came from Nuremberg and is the replacement for Sahin although he´s a different sort of player. Just got nominated for the German national team to face brazil next week.
- Moritz Leitner : 18 year old midfielder who´s been great in preseason and was great in the 2nd league last year.
- Chris Löwe : 22 year old left defender who came as a total unknown (from a 4th league team, not even has a wikipedia page
) but looked great in preseason filling in for the injured Schmelzer.
Bayern Munich had the biggest transfers this offseason, adding german NT keeper Manuel Neuer, brazilian right back Rafinha (Genua, formerly german club Schalke), Jerome Boateng and also promising striker Nils Petersen who scored 25 last year in the 2nd league.
Miroslav Klose left the club.
They are the big favourites as every year.