Many well-known faces from German football now play abroad, largely unnoticed by the media. In the sport.de spotlight today: two offensive players who were considered great talents at BVB and FC Bayern.
Five goals and seven assists in nine Youth League games, 43 goals and ten assists in 44 games at national junior level and at least three goals in 14 mostly short appearances in the 3rd division: At Borussia Dortmund Bradley Fink was long predicted a golden one Future – then the 20-year-old said goodbye to his home country, where he has been lacing his shoes for FC Basel since summer 2022.
When he announced his departure, which is said to have brought a good 800,000 euros into BVB’s coffers, Fink emphasized that he was “brutally eager” for the challenge in Basel and left little doubt about it.
On his debut he scored in the cup, followed up in the second competitive game in the Conference League and on his second appearance in the league, the 1.92 meter center forward scored the winning goal in a 3-2 win over FC St. Gallen, the same club , who recently took revenge and caused what was probably the darkest hour in Fink’s young professional career.
Highest career bankruptcy for ex-BVB talent Bradley Fink
Last Sunday, St. Gallen defeated Basel 6-1, gave the red-blue a sensitive damper in the fight for international places and caused the heaviest defeat that Fink ever had to accept in his career.
In any case, the shares of the Swiss U21 national player have gone down in the past few months: in 2023 there has only been one goal participation so far, and Fink’s playing time has also steadily decreased. Probably also because ex-BVB striker Alexander Frei, who is said to have tried extremely hard for Fink in the summer, a great advocate of the talent, had to vacate his coaching position at the beginning of February. Heiko Vogel is swinging the scepter until summer, but seems to be much less impressed by Fink.
“BZ Basel” recently spread rumors that Fink is about to leave Basel again and that FC Luzern should try to get the attacker’s services.
Former FC Bayern talent “must mature”
Nemanja Motika had to find out how difficult the leap into professional football is. Also 20 years old, also at home in attack, the Serb has risen to become a coveted hope for youngsters in FC Bayern. After outstanding performances in 2021/22, when Motika contributed 15 goals and eight assists in 24 appearances for FC Bayern II in the Bavarian regional league and even made it into the squad for the match day, the attacking player said goodbye to Roter Stern Belgrade at the beginning of February 2022. According to “Sky”, a whopping 2.5 million euros was flipped on the table.
An investment that should not pay off. Motika only made short appearances, scoring just one goal and always finding himself in the stands. Motika did not meet the expectations he had of an FC Bayern player, explained managing director Zvezdan Terzic in November 2022 and counted the youngster even more clearly: “He came from Germany and thought that in Serbia everyone would kneel in front of him go. He needs to mature.”
Motika should become more mature, especially during a loan to the Austrian first division club Austria Lustenau, but the deal, which was agreed in February 2023, has so far not brought the hoped-for success. Until last Saturday, Motika had not scored in twelve appearances, but then the knot burst in the 2-2 win against Wolfsberger AC.
For the former FC Bayern hopeful, it is to be hoped that it was only the first step on the way to a successful career.
Marc Affeldt