Many well-known faces play largely unnoticed by the German media abroad. In the sport.de limelight today: Two kickers who haven’t (yet) made it to Bayern Munich and a talent who no longer had any prospects at FC Schalke 04.
Alexander Nübel moved from FC Schalke 04 to Munich in the summer of 2020 with the self-confidence to make life difficult for goalkeeper top dog Manuel Neuer at FC Bayern. One season, four competitive appearances and the realization that Neuer would not voluntarily give his deputy a minute in the box later, the keeper pulled the rip cord and joined AS Monaco on a two-year loan deal.
Despite initial difficulties, Nübel has been number one in the principality ever since. After twelve league games without bankruptcy, including a cracking 3-0 win over the star ensemble from Paris Saint-Germain, Nübel’s sporting high has now suffered a sensitive damper.
After a good start to the season (2-1 at Racing Strasbourg and 1-1 against Stade Rennes), Nübel and Monaco were shot 4-1 by RC Lens from their own stadium. After the narrow end in qualifying for the Champions League, the second sensitive setback of the season.
Incidentally, the bankruptcy against Lens marks a negative milestone for Nübel: since leaving FC Schalke, the 25-year-old has never conceded more than three goals. Small consolation: Nübel had no chance when it came to conceding goals.
In any case, you hardly hear any criticism of Nübel’s performance. “The way he is now, he can play anywhere,” says his teammate Kevin Volland in “Sport Bild”. However, the national player restricts: “When you have Manuel Neuer in front of you at Bayern, it’s difficult to assert yourself.” A sentence that will become a mental exercise for Nübel at the latest when the return to FC Bayern’s lap is due in summer 2023.
Ex-Schalke takes off
While Nübel was once reluctant to let Schalke go, Haji Wright, an offensive player, said goodbye to the miners in the summer of 2019 because he could no longer be offered a real perspective. A decision that royal blue could regret in retrospect.
A restart at the Dutch first division club VVV-Venlo ended after just one year with the sobering result of one goal in 23 competitive games – the next change of air should give Wright wings. In the case of the Danish underdog Sönderjyske, the attacker (13 goals/37 appearances) recommended himself for higher tasks, the Turkish club Antalyaspor initially signed the US international on loan, but recently transferred almost two million euros to the Danes in order to sign Wright permanently .
A good investment: After scoring 15 goals in the previous season, Wright started the 2021/22 season with even more promise. After three league games, the 1.93-meter giant already has three stalls. Last Saturday, Wright even scored twice in the 5-2 win over Trabzonspor.
FC Bayern flop celebrates goal debut
Mickael Cuisance should also hope that a step back will pay off in the long term. The midfielder, who switched from Borussia Mönchengladbach to FC Bayern in 2019 for eight million euros, but was anything but able to live up to the high expectations of the German record champions, fled Munich to beautiful Venice in January 2022.
The Frenchman was unable to prevent the team from the city of water from being relegated from Serie A, but a pleasant debut could finally mark the turning point. Cuisance recently scored his first goal for the Venetians in a 2-1 win over FC Südtirol. Incidentally, Joel Pohjanpalo, who recently switched from Bayer Leverkusen to the Italian House of Commons, acts as the template provider.
Marc Affeldt