When Didier Drogba put the ball past Manuel Neuer in the penalty shoot-out of the 2012 Champions League final, it completed Chelsea’s first European triumph.
”Their City, Their Stadium, Our Trophy” as the Chelsea fans would point out with a banner at Stamford Bridge. But as the ball ruffled the net in the Allianz Arena, and the euphoria of the night drew on travelling Chelsea fans, it seemed like it wasn’t just Bayern Munich who lost, probably the biggest loser that day was Germany’s top footballing tier.
German football has been on the rise again in the past decade, enthralling the neutrals with their all-out attacking game on the International stage. Players like Schweinsteiger, Ballack, Klose, Podolski, get their names printed on the back of millions of jerseys worldwide. But it’s baffling how easily people seem to forget or ignore the roots of these footballers.
All of them started their careers in probably the most overlooked league.
While the La Liga, Premier League or even the Serie A continue to hog the limelight, the Bundesliga, quietly, always takes the backseat.
One of the reasons for Bundesliga not being as popular as the others is probably that it wasn’t broadcast throughout the globe until the late 2000’s, and when it did arrive, the English game had already captured peoples’ attention. Another reason being, although it can be said that this point is a bit unfair to players in Germany, is that, it doesn’t have many “Superstars”, i.e, players with a large fan-following . Yes, there aren’t many players who’ll sell millions of jerseys worldwide, but there are players with fantastic talent, superb technique, a brilliant footballing brain. Mainz’s Szalai, Monchengladbach’s Patrick Hermann, Leverkusen’s Daniel Carvajal, Frankfurt’s Takashi Inui are certainly not talked about outside of Germany, but watch them once and they will leave an impression.