VIDEO: Bayern München 3-0 VfL Wolfsburg highlights!

German Bundesliga giants FC Bayern Munich have had an impressive start to their 2012/13 campaign having won all matches across competitions so far and the winning run continued yesterday as the Bavarians beat VfL Wolfsburg 3-0 at home at the Allianz Arena. Here the highlights with all three goals!

Bayern Munich win friendly against Wolfsburg in China

German giants FC Bayern Munich won 2-1 against their Bundesliga rivals VfL Wolfsburg in a pre-season friendly earlier today at the Olympic Stadium in the south Chinese city of Guangzhou. Bayern Munich's goals were scored by new striker Mario Mandzukic and Arjen Robben, while Vaclav Pilar reduced the deficit.

The match was held in China as the second friendly match of the Audi Football Summit series, which is an open series of friendly football matches organised by Audi AG and played around the world. The car major is using football as a tool of promoting its products with Bayern Munich being co-owned and sponsored by Audi, while its parent company Volkswagen owns VfL Wolfsburg. The first Audi Football Summit match was held on January 10, 2012 in New Delhi when Team India took on FC Bayern Munich.

Wolfsburg had the better start into the match, while Bayern Munich needed time to get into the game but on the half hour mark they got a penalty for a foul on Thomas Müller. Former Wolfsburg striker Mario Mandzukic took the penalty to give his new team the lead. Dutch international Arjen Robben doubled the lead in the 39th minute with a lob over Wolves keeper Hitz off a pass from Franck Ribéry.

After the break substitutions and the hot-and-humid weather took its toll on the game with Wolfsburg's Czech newcomer Vaclav Pilar reducing the deficit in injury time. The match ended 2-1 for Bayern Munich, their second win on their China tour after beating Beijing Guoan on Tuesday.


MATCH STATS
FC Bayern Munich 2-1 (2-0) VfL Wolfsburg - Goals: 1-0 Mario Mandzukic (29', pen), 2-0 Arjen Robben (39'), 2-1 Vaclav Pilar (90+2')

FC Bayern
Neuer - Boateng, Van Buyten, Dante (46' Badstuber), Contento (46' Tymoshchuk) - Gustavo, Kroos (63' Can) - Robben (46' Pizarro), Müller (67' Weiser), Ribéry (46' Shaqiri) - Mandzukic (46' Gomez)

VfL Wolfsburg
Hitz - Fagner (80' Diego), Naldo (80' Russ), Pogatetz (46' Knoche), Schäfer (80' Kahlenberg) - Hasani (27' Hasebe), Josué (69' Dejagah), Polák (46' Pilar) - Olic (69' Träsch), Helmes (46' Orozco) - Dost (46' Lakic)

Referee
Zhao Liang (China)

Spectators
35,000

Bayern Munich sign Croatian striker Mandzukic

German giants FC Bayern Munich have signed Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic from Bundesliga rivals VfL Wolfsburg for an unconfirmed fee of around 13 Million Euros. Mandzukic will sign a four year contract once his medical is done.

"We're pleased we've been able to bring in Mario Mandzukic, one of the best forwards in the Bundesliga, who also demonstrated his special goalscoring ability at EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. He'll make our squad even stronger," stated FCB Director of Sport Christian Nerlinger.

The 26 year old Mandzukic is seen as competition to German international Mario Gomez with seasoned Claudio Pizarro a third competitor for a position upfront, which last season was seen as a weakness at the Bavarians. Bayern Munich get a striker, who has played two years in the Bundesliga for Wolfsburg, with international experience who could be able to put some pressure on Mario Gomez.

Mandzukic is Bayern Munich's sixth confirmed new signing for the 2012/13 campaign. The club had earlier signed goalkeeper Tom Starke, defender Dante, midfielders Xherdan Shaqiri and Mitchell Weiser plus striker Claudio Pizarro.

Bundesliga Column - Round 34: Cologne relegated, Hertha Berlin get relegation spot

As is usual in the last couple of German Bundesliga rounds all nine matches of Round 34, the final match day of the 2011/12 season were played simultaneously at 15.30 CET on Saturday. This is to ensure same chances for everyone fighting for the title, places in Europe and against relegation.

And what a match day it turned out to be though key decisions on champions, first team to be relegated and who gains places for Europe next season had already been taken. Champions Borussia Dortmund trashed an inform SC Freiburg 4-0 to finish with 81 points, a new record in the history of the Bundesliga.

The eyes were all on the relegation battle between 1.FC Köln and Hertha BSC Berlin, who would get relegated directly and who would get a second chance in the relegation playoff against the third-placed side in the 2.Bundesliga. FC Cologne that the difficult task of facing record champions FC Bayern Munich at home, while Hertha BSC Berlin faced 1899 Hoffenheim who had nothing to really play except that their coach Markus Babbel had been Hertha coach earlier on in the season.

As one would have expected Cologne suffered a 1-4 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich, but Hertha Berlin won 3-1 against Hoffenheim to push Cologne into Division 2 while they face Fortuna Düsseldorf in the relegation playoff in the coming days to decide to play Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga next season.

The last Europa League spot was grabbed by Hannover 96 who beat relegated 1.FC Kaiserslautern 2-1 while VfL Wolfsburg, Werder Bremen and 1.FC Nürnberg all lost in their quest for European football next season.


Round 34 Results

Borussia Dortmund 4-0 SC Freiburg
Hertha BSC Berlin 3-1 1899 Hoffenheim
FC Augsburg 1-0 Hamburger SV
1.FC Nürnberg 1-4 Bayer 04 Leverkusen
SV Werder Bremen 2-3 FC Schalke 04
VfB Stuttgart 3-2 VfL Wolfsburg
Hannover 96 2-1 1.FC Kaiserslautern
1.FC Köln 1-4 FC Bayern München
1.FSV Mainz 05 0-3 Borussia Mönchengladbach

Felix Magath: Buying/Selling of players in Wolfsburg

Since his days at FC Schalke 04 Felix Magath is known as a coach who tries to build a team by buying and selling as per his plans and observations. Previous achievements or the name of the players do not matter and within days 'X' number of players can be gone and new players can come in.



Though saying before the summer break he wouldn't be so pro-active in the transfer window Magath has done it again this summer at VfL Wolfsburg especially after a weak start into the Bundesliga season.



Over the last few days Felix Magath has been so busy in trying to bring in players he wanted, get rid of players he doesn't want or send out players on loan to reduce the squad size that he might have forgotten about his main task, coaching.



Magath's last minute buys include Brazilian defender Chris, who last season was with Eintracht Frankfurt; on loan Belarus' Aleksandr Hleb from FC Barcelona after having taken on Greek international defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos and German midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, who last season was with West Ham United; and Swedish striker Rasmus Jönsson from Helsingborg IF.



Earlier Magath had signed Croatian striker Srdjan Lakic from 1.FC Kaiserslautern, Bosnian midfielder Hasan Salihamidzic from Juventus Torino, German international Christian Träsch from VfB Stuttgart, Croatian defender Hrvoje Cale from Turkish side Trabzonspor plus the duo Patrick Ochs and Marco Russ from Eintracht Frankfurt.



Magath had hoped to get around 20 Million Euros from the sale of Brazilian playmaker Diego and Danish defender Simon Kjaer, but the duo could only be send out on loan. While Diego had to go for free on loan to Atletico Madrid, Kjaer will bring Magath 3 Million Euros from AS Roma. But he was able to sell Slovakian defender Peter Pekarík to Turkish side Kayserispor.



Earlier Algerian midfielder Karim Ziani, Brazilian striker Grafite, Turkish striker Tuncay Sanli, Swiss striker Nassim Ben Khalifa besides midfielders Sascha Riether and Fabian Johnson.



The above reads like a real exchange of players which Magath has done once more. If he will be able to form a team and bring success to Wolfsburg will have to be seen, then owners Volkswagen will surely want their team to play in European competitions next season.

VfL Wolfsburg and Brazilian Diego part ways

German Bundesliga champions of 2009 VfL Wolfsburg and Brazilian playmaker Diego are set to go separate ways after the player met coach Felix Magath to discuss his future.

Diego, whose full name is Diego Ribas da Cunha, had left the team hotel ahead of the final match of last season against 1899 Hoffenheim after Magath named his first eleven and Diego saw his name missing. Diego actually left his team on the day when Wolfsburg were fighting against relegation, an unacceptable incidence.

There have been speculation that the club fined Diego a record 500,000 Euros for his departure though it hasn't been confirmed by the club or player. Since that day there has been speculation what would happen with Diego - would he stay, be forced to play for the second team or allowed to leave.

Coach Magath said in a statement on the Wolfsburg website, "After the conversation it was clear that further co-operation will be difficult and that it is better if we go our separate ways."

Diego had only been signed in August 2010 as the big midfield hope for 15 million Euros from Juventus Torino. Wolfsburg wanted to build a successful team around him, but after the incidence the club, coach and most likely also team mates will have lost trust in him.

Diego had said before the meeting, "I have always felt comfortable in Wolfsburg, but I made a mistake. Now it's up to the club and myself to find the best solution."

The only solution was departure, but until Diego finds a new club he will be allowed to train with the team. Wolfsburg will be looking to recoup as much of their money as possible.

Bundesliga: Heading for an interesting finish

The 2010/11 German Bundesliga season is heading for an interesting finale at the top and bottom with three rounds to go. Match day 31 had some interesting surprises in store, which has opened up the table even more and things seem to be changing week by week.

A couple of weeks back Borussia Dortmund seemed to be losing the plot and Bayer 04 Leverkusen closing in to snatch the title away from them, then last week Leverkusen got trashed 5-1 by Bayern Munich and it seemed all over. This is how fast things can change in football.

Now this Saturday Dortmund lost the battles of the Borussia's against bottom placed Moenchengladbach to stay on 69 points and Leverkusen meanwhile had to work their way through to a 2-1 win against 1899 Hoffenheim to move to 64 points. And suddenly the gap has come down to only five points with nine points still to be played for. And some see the young Dortmund side feeling the pressure, while Leverkusen who are known as Vize-kusen (always finish second, but never first) could be in with a late chance.

The race for the third and final UEFA Champions League spot is even tighter. Last week FC Bayern Munich after the win against Leverkusen were a point ahead of Hannover 96 on 55 points, but a draw against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday after Hannover had won 3-1 at SC Freiburg on Thursday left the Bavarian giants one point behind their northern rivals.

There is also a fight for the fifth spot which would guarantee Europa League next season. And the two clubs fighting over the spot met earlier today in Nuremberg with 1.FC Nuremberg playing a goalless draw against FSV Mainz 05. Mainz now on 49 points stay two points clear of Nuremberg.

Down in the relegation zone things are slower getting clearer. It is now a matter of five and not eight/nine clubs who could get relegated. Currently FC St. Pauli and Borussia Moenchengladbach are at the back of the pack with 29 points, while VfL Wolfsburg with their first win under old-and-new coach Felix Magath by beating FC Cologne 4-1 are now on 32 points in the 16th playoff spot. Above them are Eintracht Frankfurt on 34 points, while FC Cologne are on 35 points.

All this guarantees an interesting three weeks until the Bundesliga season ends on May 14, but it will be interesting to see who wins the title, qualifies for Europe and gets relegated.

Coach Roulette in the Bundesliga

German football is experiencing something which it has never ever seen before. The clubs are in a hire-and-fire mode with even established clubs joining the mayhem which is resulting in coaches being exchanged like never before likewise the news is out this month on coaches leaving or forced to leave at the end of the season.

Veteran coach Jupp Heynckes had said before the weekends matches, "At the moment, the Bundesliga is a madhouse. The average football fan has trouble understanding it."

Now yesterday Heynckes himself became part of this carousel for coaches by announcing that he would not extend his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. This meant Bayer 04 where now searching for a replacement and they found that in Freiburg in Robin Dutt, who is leaving them with a year still left on his contract and the reserve team coach Marcus Sorg will replace him. In Leverkusen Heynckes left it open if he would retire or return to his former club FC Bayern Munich.

At Bayern Munich things looked fine with coach Louis van Gaal after the club won the double and reached the final of the UEFA Champions League last season, but this term things weren't working out with the club having problems in league. For Bayern reaching the Champions League is a must and once it became clear that this aim was in danger the club was on the verge of firing van Gaal. They in the end didn't but decided it was time to part ways at the end of the season. And Bayern wanted former coach Heynckes as the replacement though rumours have said that the club has also shown interest in Germany coach Joachim Loew before he signed an extension, German technical director Matthias Sammer, Turkey coach Guus Hiddink, while in England the rumour has made rounds about former Bayern player and current Fulham boss Mark Hughes coming to the Saebener Strasse.

Elsewhere at FC Schalke 04 things looked similar in the summer. The Ruhr club finished second, Champions League football guaranteed, all looked fine for the royal blues. But Magath like he has done at earlier clubs started to rebuild the squad by buying and selling numerous players. But one of the main strengths of Schalke is the identification of the fans with the club. That was getting lost with Magath even on the board of the club. The club had reached the German Cup final and the last eight of the Champions League, but in the Bundesliga the results weren't good. The club was looking for reasons, so the many transfers and discrepencies there seemed to be the route out. A board meeting was conviened and out was Magath.

But not even 48 hours later Magath was back in the Bundesliga. His former club VfL Wolfsburg are fighting against relegation with a squad which cost owners Volkswagen tens of millions. The experiment with the first English coach in the Bundesliga in Steve McClaren failed and his assistant Pierre Littbarski also couldn't turn things around, so in a desparate attempt the VW bosses got in touch with Magath and suddenly he was back with most of the powers he had when he left the club in 2009 as Bundesliga champions.

Schalke 04 have since named former coach Ralf Rangnick as the new coach, who had left the club due to differences with the board in 2005 and the same people are still in charge. Rangnick meanwhile had left 1899 Hoffenheim in the first few days of the year in mutual consent. Hoffenheim supremo Dietmar Hopp and manager Ernst Tanner had sold a player without the okay from the coach, then his assistant Marco Pezzaiuoli took over.

The same happened at Hamburger SV about 10 days back when Armin Veh was fired after a 0-6 trashing against Bayern Munich. It had been decided that Veh would leave the club at the end of the season, but events on the field forced the club to act swiftly and they promoted Veh's assistant Michael Oenning to the top job. Oenning has until the end of the season to prove himself, if he can convince the management then he might get an extension. But in all this turmoil the club also lost their managing director Bernd Hoffmann, who had to leave the club too; while the search for a director of sports had been a topic for close to 20 months but there the club found an answer in Frank Arnesen.

And today the mayhem continued with Eintracht Frankfurt firing their coach Michael Skibbe and seasoned Christoph Daum is set to take over. What makes this firing even more bizarre is the fact that Frankfurt won their match against FC St. Pauli over the weekend. While over a month back bottom of the table Borussia Moenchengladbach had already fired Michael Frontzeck and brought in Swiss coach Lucien Favre, but still they are bottom of the league.

Luckily this week there is an international break, so the fans can check who is actually coaching which club. And one never knows more might be in store for us...

Magath returns to Wolfsburg

The coaches merry-go round in the German Bundesliga reached a new climax after rumours came out last night that Felix Magath could make a shock return to former club VfL Wolfsburg. And today that rumour was confirmed by the north German club who are funded and supported by car giants Volkswagen, but are fighting against relegation this season.

The club in a simple statement said, "VfL Wolfsburg has hired Felix Magath as director of sport and coach. The official presentation will take place on Friday at midday."

Struggling Wolfsburg could never recover from their 2008/09 Bundesliga championship season under Magath. Thereafter coaches Armin Veh, Steve McClaren and stand-in Pierre Littbarski all failed and the Wolves are now second from bottom in a very tight relegation battle.

With the surprise appointment of 57 year old Magath the club will hope that the champion coach can steady the ship before rebuilding the club and squad next season. Magath has signed a contract until 2013 and sports manager Dieter Hoeness would also have to leave the club with all powers back to Magath, who only had been sacked at Schalke on Wednesday after differences with the board.

Wolfsburg fires McClaren

In the end it was inevitable that VfL Wolfsburg would fire their English head coach Steve McClaren and it came after the 0-1 Bundesliga derby loss against Hanover 96. The project of having the first English coach in Germany's top league has failed.

And there are numerous reasons for the failure of McClaren at the ambitious VfL Wolfsburg, who are supported and funded by German automaker giants Volkswagen. McClaren came to Germany with the baggage of the first-ever Dutch league title with FC Twente Enschede last season. The club has been spending heavily in the transfer market to strengthen the squad and many had expected McClaren to go before the winter break, but he was allowed to continue and six new players were brought in as star striker Edin Dzeko left for Manchester City.

But still things didn't change and it all ended after the defeat against Hanover 96 over the weekend as Brazilian playmaker Diego took a penalty he wasn't intended to take and didn't score to make matters even worse. It forced the management to react and McClaren was releaved of his duties yesterday.


Wolfsburg is another chapter of failure for McClaren after having had a successful stint. He learned his coaching from Jim Smith at Derby County and Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United as their assistants before being the manager at FC Middlesbrough from 2001 to 2006.

Under his reign the club won the 2004 Carling Cup, recorded their highest Premier League finish as seventh and reached the 2006 UEFA Cup final, which the club lost 0-4 against FC Seville, the last match in charge for McClaren before he moved on.

And then came the big task of coaching England, which didn't work out to well for McClaren as his team didn't qualify for the Euro 2008 and this led to him getting fired. This brought McClaren to Holland and then the short stint in Germany.

German 1990 World Cup winner Pierre Littbarski, who was an assistant of Steve McClaren, takes over until the end of the season. And his first task will be to steer the club away from the relegation zone. Though being in 12nd spot the wolves are only a spot away from the playoff spot.

Asian Cup star Ja Cheol Koo joins Wolfsburg, but FIFA investigates

21 year old South Korean midfielder Ja Cheol Koo, one of the star performers for his nation in the recently held 2011 AFC Asian Cup, has signed a three and a half year contract with German Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg. Ja Cheol had made a mark in the tournament in Qatar by ending as its top scorer scoring five goals.

Ja Cheol said after the signing, "Now I will concentrate on playing well out there. Young Pyo Lee and many national team mates advised me to play in Europe."

And Ja Cheol Koo happens to be the second Asian footballer at the North German club after Japan captain Makoto Hasebe, who joined the club three years back.

But world football governing body FIFA is investigating Wolfsburg's signing of Ja Cheol Koo, after Swiss club Young Boys Berne thought it had a deal for the South Korea international. FIFA says the Switzerland Football Association is seeking clarification of Koo's international clearance to play in Germany.

The Swiss 'Axpo Super League' club Young Boys believed it had agreement with Koo's Korean club Jeju United before the start of the Asian Cup, but that is something which the player denies and he flew to Germany to sign a contract with Wolfsburg before returning to South Korea. FIFA says that the transfer to Wolfsburg was approved through its online transfer system which requires consent from both clubs - the selling and buying clubs.

Bundesliga 2010: Tops & Flops

The German Bundesliga after 17 of its 34 rounds is having its usual winter break with no games over a four week period. And it has been an interesting, sometimes crazy first half of the season with Borussia Dortmund as the surprise league leaders and other smaller clubs like Mainz 05, Hannover 96 and SC Freiburg in the top six of the league. Meanwhile league giants Bayern Munich are only fifth, but other clubs like VfL Wolfsburg, Werder Bremen could be fighting relegation while VfB Stuttgart are in the relegation zone. Their club managements will have something to ponder over the holiday break.

Here are the tops and flops of the first half of the 2010/11 Bundesliga season.


TOPS

1. Borussia Dortmund - The Juergen Klopp coached side are one of the youngest teams in the league, but have had an incredible run with 14 wins from 15 matches ater losing their first and then the last match. 43 Points from 17 matches is the second best ever record in the Bundesliga and the youngsters proved their class. Turkish midfielder Nuri Sahin is the man in the middle with captain Roman Weidenfeller the oldest and most experienced player at the back. Young central defenders Mats Hummels and Nevin Subotic have been playing together for a while though still in their early twenties and then there are teenage sensation Mario Goetze and Japanese surprise Shinji Kagawa plus striker Lucas Barrios, who have all played their part. Klopp over the last two and a half years has wisely put together a squad with talent and now they are proving what they can achieve.

2. FSV Mainz 05 - The early league leaders and the biggest of all surprises. Mainz was expected to fight relegation, but from the start they have been on top with great attacking football and a rotation within the team, which allowed coach Thomas Tuchel to keep his young bunch on course. Mainz did have a few bad games towards the end, but still they recovered and are second in the league. And 37 year old Tuchel is the architect of this surprise success. Tuchel is said to be thorough in his match preparations and that has so far paid off.

3. Hannover 96 - Last season after the suicide of goalkeeper Robert Enke the club was totally out of sorts and the team nearly got relegated. This season a number of new players came in, the club has been able to shrug off last seasons events, but coach Mirko Slomka was a top candidate to be fired first. Slomka was able to form a unit and Hannover have stayed amongst the top clubs through the first half of the season. But the question remains if they can retain their form after the break.


FLOPS

1. Werder Bremen - They have been the most consistent German club after Bayern Munich over the last decade, but somehow this season things haven't been going right for the Thomas Schaaf coached side. The club sold Mesut Özil to Real Madrid in the summer, they thought no replacement was needed as they generally have a good squad, but after these five months they have had a rethink and look to strengthen their squad over the winter.

2. VfL Wolfsburg - They took a gamble by signing Steve McClaren as the first English coach in the Bundesliga. So far the experiment has failed, but McClaren wasn't fired as had been expected and has been given more time to turn things around. The Volkswagen backed club has spend millions on players over the years, build infrastructure and now expects the Wolves to be playing in European competitions year in and year out. A tough ask for coach McClaren, who said he doesn't have a team but a group of individuals. He has a few weeks to sort it out otherwise someone else will be given a chance.

3. VfB Stuttgart - In Stuttgart history seems to repeat itself each winter, but it hasn't been as bad as this season. The club is 17th and fighting to stay in the Bundesliga. They fired their coach in autumn like in the last two years, but only named an interim coach in Jens Keller and then brought in Bruno Labbadia before the two matches against Bayern Munich, which the club lost. Like Bremen they lost a player in Sami Khedira to Real Madrid plus Jens Lehmann retired and the club suddenly seemed to lack a leader on the pitch. In the last three years the club has been amongst the best in the second half of the league, in 2007 they actually went on to win the Bundesliga title. But this season it is different and difficult too.

Wolfsburg allows Coach McClaren to continue

German Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg yesterday held a board meeting to discuss the current situation at the club after a dismal first half of the 2010/11 Bundesliga season. It was expected after Wednesday's terrible German Cup performance against second division Energie Cottbus, which the club lost 1-3, that English coach Steve McClaren would be fired. But the club decided otherwise and at least for the moment McClaren stays on with the north German club.

Since winning the Bundesliga title in 2009 things haven't been going right for Wolfsburg. Last winter Armin Veh had been fired and second team coach Lorenz Guenther Koestner had taken over on an interims basis. And this summer McClaren had joined the club from Dutch side Twente Enschede, who had just won their first ever Eredivisie title under him. But since the start of the league McClaren hasn't been able to form a unit though the club spend close to 40 Million Euros on new recruits like Diego and Simon Kjaer.

After Wednesday's embarrassing defeat McClaren had this to say to the media, "I am disappointed, frustrated. We have problems in the dressing room, problems on the field. We have hit rock bottom."

For now the board stands by their coach and after his statement on Wednesday there are set to be changes in the squad, if not now then surely in the summer. With immediate effect Karim Ziani and Caiuby are no longer part of the team and will train with the second team, maybe they'll be sold off in the winter; while youngsters Akaki Gogia, Kevin Wolze and Michael Schulze join the squad from the second team and Florian Hartherz from the Under-19s for the winter training camp.

McClaren has gotten some more time to mould his own team in Wolfsburg, but one will have to see if the experiment of having an English coach in the German Bundesliga will work. Currently as Bundesliga 13th with only 19 points that simply isn't enough for a team which is backed by Volkswagen and wants to play in Europe.

VfL Wolfsburg = Volkswagen

Have you heard about German Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg? Some of you might remember that they surprisingly won the 2009 Bundesliga title under then manager Felix Magath. But otherwise they are a rather unknown club even here in Germany. Last night they lost their opening match against champions Bayern Munich, but the club has ambitions to qualify for the Champions League or Europa League next season.

The city of Wolfsburg with a population of just over 120,000 happens to be the home town of Germany's biggest auto mobile maker Volkswagen. And the bosses at VW have big ambitions with their VfL Wolfsburg. VW has invested Millions of Euros over the last few years to use VfL Wolfsburg as a promotion tool for their brand and car business. They build a brand new 30,000 all seater stadium, a new training complex and money for coaches to spend on player transfers.

The bosses at VW now want to ensure that VfL Wolfsburg establish themselves amongst the big boys of German football and had brought earlier in the year Dieter Hoeness as sports manager, while for the new season signed Englishman Steve McClaren as the clubs coach.

This summer VfL Wolfsburg has been the highest spending club in the Bundesliga investing 23,4 Million Euros. The club signed Danish defender Simon Kjær (US Palermo) for 12 Million Euros, Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic (Dynamo Zagreb) for 7 Million Euros, German international Arne Friedrich (Hertha BSC Berlin) for 2 Million Euros, Swiss youngster Nassim Ben Khalifa (Grasshoppers Zurich) for 1,6 Million Euros and on loan Brazilian Cícero (Tombense) for 800.000 €. A considerable investment for which the VW management will want to see positive results.

But VfL Wolfsburg and Volkswagen aren't the only example of corporate involvement in football. The other known examples are PSV Eindhoven = Philips in the Netherlands, Bayer 04 Leverkusen = Bayer AG in Germany or Red Bull Salzburg = Red Bull in Austria, the energy drink company which also has clubs in New York (USA) and Leipzig (Germany) and academies in Ghana and Brazil. Even we in India have such clubs like Dempo, Salgaocar and JCT.

In the end I'd like to tell you a small little anecdote about VfL Wolfsburg, which shows you how the club has grown in the last couple of decades. In the summer of 1991 VfL Wolfsburg were fighting for promotion to the 2.Bundesliga. And they lost in the playoffs against my home town club FC Remscheid due to a Carsten Proepper goal. But FC Remscheid only stayed a couple of years in the 2.Bundesliga while VfL Wolfsburg gained promotion the next season and stayed in the league for five years before gaining promotion to the 1.Bundesliga. Since then they have been in the top tier, while my beloved FCR now plays 7th division football after being relegated last season. This shows how important it is to have a potent financial backer to achieve something in football.

Bundesliga 2010/11 - A preview

The new Bundesliga 2010/11 season is set to kick-off tomorrow with the opening Friday evening game between defending champions FC Bayern Munich vs VfL Wolfsburg, their predecessors, at the Allianz Arena in Munich. And the fans look forward to an interesting season ahead with heightened expectations after Germany's strong performances in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.


Title favourites

Once more Bayern Munich go into a new Bundesliga season as the big favourites. And the question is really who can stop Bayern win their 23rd German title? Can it be the surprise package of last season Schalke 04 under all powerful coach Magath, the talented Werder Bremen, will Michael Ballack's return give Bayer 04 Leverkusen their first ever title or the high spending Wolfsburg under Steve McClaren, the first ever English coach to train in the German top flight. Questions over questions, but we will only have a definite answer in May 2011.


New Stars

The Bundesliga has grown as a league over the last few years and financial stability is one of the reasons why the league is attracting more and more big talent.

The first to mention is the return of Michael Ballack from FC Chelsea to Bayer 04 Leverkusen. A number of Bundesliga clubs wanted to sign the German star, but Ballack in the end decided that returning to his old club Leverkusen was the best decision for himself and his family. For the club a big investment, but maybe the push which the young team under seasoned coach Jupp Heynckes needs to finally win the league title.

The most surprise signing of the summer was that of Spanish legend Raul by FC Schalke 04. Raul left Real Madrid for the royal blues, a typical Ruhr valley working class club, so the differences couldn't be bigger. But making the switch with Raul from Real Madrid to Schalke is former German international Christoph Metzelder, who after three rather unsuccessful years in Madrid has come back to Germany to try and resurrect his international career. And that was the real reason for Raul joining Schalke as Metzelder played the connection which enabled Schalke to sign him.

Another big signing was that of young Danish defender Simon Kjaer by VfL Wolfsburg from US Palermo for 12 Million Euros. A lot of European top clubs were after Kjaer, but in the end decided to join the Wolves.


Players that have left

But some stars have also left the Bundesliga.

World Cup stars Sami Khedira (VfB Stuttgart) and Mesut Oezil (SV Werder Bremen) have both left the other way and joined Real Madrid. The clubs new coach Jose Mourinho was impressed in what he saw from the duo at the 2010 World Cup and now Khedira and Oezil will have to prove their worth for the Spanish giants.
Another German international who left the Bundesliga was defender Jerome Boateng, who left Hamburger SV for Premier League side Manchester City, but his transfer had been sealed before the World Cup.

The big inter-Bundesliga transfers were those of German internationals. Heiko Westermann left Schalke for Hamburger SV for 7,5 Million Euros and defender Arne Friedrich joined VfL Wolfsburg from relegated Hertha BSC Berlin for around 2 Million Euros.

Leaving the Bundesliga after many years is Brazilian right back Rafinha. It had been expected last year that he would leave Schalke, but he stayed on for another season only to be sold this summer for 9 Million Euros to Italian side FC Genua 93.


New Ball

The Bundesliga will also from this season onwards play with a standard league ball. Adidas is the partner and the new league ball has been named "Torfabrik". Translated into English it means "Goal Factory" as one would hope many goals are scored with the ball.
The new one ball policy which earns league and clubs good money means that all clubs, whoever their kit partner, will have to play with this Adidas ball in Bundesliga matches.


Capacity Stadiums

Germany is the league with the highest attendances in any football league around the world. Last season the figure was over 42.000 per match on average over the whole season. And with stadiums expanding their capacity further it could be even higher this time around. Already more then 460.000 season tickets have been sold which is a new record.


The summer break has been long enough. Let the new season finally kick-off...

McClaren joins Wolfsburg

Steve McClaren is the new coach of dethroned 2009 German Bundesliga champions VfL Wolfsburg.

McClaren, the first Englishman to coach in Germany, has signed a two year contract which is said to be worth three Million Euros per annum.

For the Volkswagen backed club the signing of McClaren signals the end of a long search for a new coach. Armin Veh had been sacked in late January with second team coach Lorenz-Guenther Koestner taking over the job for the rest of the season.

VfL manager Dieter Hoeness had former Liverpool and Lyon coach Gerard Houllier as his favourite, but the Frenchman couldn't join the North Germans due to family issues.

And then the attention shifted to signing McClaren.


New chance

To many the signing might come as a surprise, but McClaren has re-established his coaching career in the last couple of years in the Netherlands as the coach of FC Twente Enschede, who won their first-ever Dutch league title recently. And this didn't go unnoticed.

In recent weeks McClaren has been linked with a number of English Premier League clubs, especially West Ham United who incidentally fired Gianfranco Zola yesterday.

But McClaren was regarded as a non-starter as a coach in England after the Three Lions didn't qualify for the European Championships 2008 and since then found his luck on the continent.


Background

McClaren played from 1979 to 1992 for Hull City, Derby County, Lincoln City, Bristol City and Oxford. He learned his coaching from Jim Smith at Derby County and Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United as their assistants before being the manager at FC Middlesbrough from 2001 to 2006.

Under his reign the club won the 2004 Carling Cup, recorded their highest Premier League finish as seventh and reached the 2006 UEFA Cup final, which the club lost 0-4 against FC Seville, the last match in charge for McClaren before he moved on.

And then came the big task of coaching England, which didn't work out to well for McClaren as his team didn't qualify for the Euro 2008 and this led to him getting fired.

This brought McClaren to Twente and now to Wolfsburg.


Ambitions

At Wolfsburg McClaren will find an ambitious management and automobile major VW supporting him.

And by winning the Dutch title and shifting to Germany, McClaren will now follow in the large footsteps of Dutchman Louis van Gaal who last summer joined Bayern Munich after winning the Dutch title with AZ Alkmaar.

The first task will be to retain wanted Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko before looking to strengthen the team, which finished only eighth this season.

McClaren can't speak German, but according to manager Dieter Hoeness that isn't an issue.

McClaren will arrive in Wolfsburg before July 1 to set the agenda and put the new team together with manager Dieter Hoeness.

McClaren's family will also shift to Germany to be with him.