Getting better all the time
The 48th season of Bundesliga action gets under way in less than a month's time, and the German top flight is a hot article at the moment! Its standing continues to improve abroad, helped in no small part by the progress of Bayern München to the final of the Champions League and Hamburger SV to the last four of the Europa League last season. Schalke 04 coach Felix Magath even believes that, "If clubs had to play in the Champions League with just home-grown talent, the German teams would win.”
The World Cup in South Africa provided further evidence to a global audience of the Bundesliga's quality. Not only on account of the accomplished and entertaining displays offered up by the German national team, but also in light of the fact that no less than 28 of the players involved at the semi-final stage earn their bread week for week in the country's elite footballing class. In all, only the English Premier League was better represented at the finals.
The new campaign kicks off on August 20th with a cracking encounter between current champions Bayern München and the team they succeeded, VfL Wolfsburg. bundesliga.de has eight good reasons for why you shouldn't miss any of the action this season either!
Big-name transfers
Last season, Arjen Robben and Ruud van Nistelrooy took over where Franck Ribery and Luca Toni had left off the year before, becoming the latest world-class stars to switch to the Bundesliga. The two biggest incoming names so far for 2010-11 are both Germans returning to their native shores: Michael Ballack at Bayer Leverkusen and Christoph Metzelder, now of Schalke 04. But the fans can also expect great things of Marko Arnautovic (Bremen), Robert Lewandowski (Dortmund) and Simon Kjær (Wolfsburg), all of whom opted to move to the Bundesliga rather than another top European league.
World Cup stars close-up and personal
While the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney fell well short of expectations at the World Cup, Germany's youngsters found themselves hogging the limelight with their performances. The refreshing, pacey football of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Sami Khedira, Mesut Özil and shooting star Thomas Müller entertained fans from all over and engendered a fresh appreciation of the German game abroad. And as of August 20th, those self-same stars will be showcasing their skills in the Bundesliga!
Packed stadiums
The Bundesliga remains the best-supported football league in the world. The average attendance last season was 41,802, giving a grand total of 12.79 million people passing through the turnstiles at the 306 top-flight games. The percentage of season tickets sold rose from 55 to 58 percent, and stadiums were filled to around 90 percent of capacity overall. The median ticket price was 21 euro 89 cent – the lowest for Europe's top leagues. And the trend shows no sign of abating: by mid-July, Borussia Dortmund had already sold 50,000 season tickets!
Goals galore
They're the salt in the soup and the reason the fans turn out in droves: goals. And the Bundesliga clubs are more than happy to oblige, delivering 866 all-told last season – an average of 2.83 per game. Which also left Europe's other elite divisions trailing, the English Premier League managing 1053 (2.77/game on average), Spain's Primera Division on 1031 (2.71), Italy's Serie A totalling 992 (2.61) and Ligue 1 in France bringing up the rear on 916 (2.41). Now Edin Dzeko, Arjen Robben, Stefan Kießling, Lucas Barrios and their fellow sharpshooters are gearing up to go on the goal-hunt once again.
Return of the cult clubs
Two old-time favourites are back in the Bundesliga with the return of tradition-rich 1. FC Kaiserslautern and the "club with a difference”, FC St. Pauli. Each brings a huge potential fan base, a top-notch atmosphere in the stadium and, particularly in the case of "World Club Cup champion-beaters” St. Pauli, a special note of their very own to the German top flight. Even better, both showed a keen appetite for getting forward last season. St. Pauli were 2. Bundesliga top scorers and Kaiserslautern third highest.
Excitement
To be sure, Bayern München are almost invariably the pre-season favourites to add another title to their collection. Recent years have shown however that the Bundesliga is anything but a cakewalk for the record champions. "If Bayern slip up, we'll be in there”, Leverkusen striker Patrick Helmes has vowed. Last season, six teams still had a theoretical chance of winning the title with just four games left to go. No other top league in Europe could boast that level of competition. For 1899 Hoffenheim coach Ralf Rangnick, "The Bundesliga is the most best-contested league in the world, and the strongest."
On the up in Europe
The current strength of the Bundesliga is also reflected on the European stage. Six teams will be in action in Europe this coming season: FC Bayern, Schalke 04, Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund and VfB Stuttgart. That situation could improve even further in the very near future. Should Germany overhaul Italy in the UEFA five-year rankings this season, the Bundesliga would have seven guaranteed starters in Europe in 2012-13 and, for the first time since 2000-01, four teams competing in the Champions League rather than the current three.
Variety
Three different clubs have won the Bundesliga title over the past five years. FC Bayern have managed it three times, with VfB Stuttgart (2007) and VfL Wolfsburg (2009) also claiming the major domestic prize. Only France's Ligue 1 can match that, with serial victors Lyon displaced by Bordeaux and Marseille in each of the last two seasons. In England (Chelsea, Manchester United) and Spain (Barcelona, Real Madrid), two clubs have shared the spoils. Italy can top even that though, with Inter Milan now up to five titles on the trot.
