No poll as I don't want to restrict the choice on my thoughts. Possible MVP candidates of every team: BAYERN: Kahn, Ballack, Elber DORTMUND: Lehmann, Frings, Koller STUTTGART: Bordon, Kuranyi BERLIN: Marcelinho, Friedrich, HAMBURG: Barbarez, Romeo BREMEN: Ailton, Micoud SCHALKE: Rost 1860: Lauth, Schroth, Jentzsch WOLFSBURG: Reitmaier, Rau BOCHUM: Christiansen, Freier, van Duijnhoven KAISERSLAUTERN: Wiese, Klose HANNOVER: Bobic, Vinicius MÖNCHENGLADBACH: Forssell ROSTOCK: --- BIELEFELD: Wichniarek LEVERKUSEN: --- NÜRNBERG: --- COTTBUS: --- GOALIE CHOICE: Kahn, Lehmann, Hildebrand, Kiraly, Rost, Jentzsch, Reitmaier, van Duijnhoven, Wiese, Stiel, Schober, Kampa, Lenz ROOKIE CHOICE: Rau (Wolfsburg), Friedrich, Marx (both Berlin), Stehle (Nuremberg), Lauth (1860), Diabang (Bielefeld), Vinicius (Hannover), Forssell (Gladbach), Daun (Bremen), Varela (Schalke), Amanatidis, Kuranyi (both Stuttgart), Wiese, Tchato (both Lautern)
Wow. I just don't see enough games to render a really intelligent response to your inquiry. Based upon what I've seen this year (two games a week), here goes: 1. Rookie: Co-winners. Friedrich and Kuranyi. Friedrich is a classy player. Kevin Kuranyi just looks so dangerous everytime I see him play. If I had to choose one, it would be Kuranyi, based upon the fact that Stuttgart did more with, arguably, less. 2. Goalie: Borell Really, Kahn always looked good; the only error I've really seen from him was the wenchy barmaid. 3. MVP: this one's tough. Guys that have impressed me, in no particular order, include Ballack, Frings, Micoud, Listzes, Ailton, Marcelinho, Hleb, Koller, Poulsen, Schneider, as well as Kuranyi and Friedrich. Hard to pick one, but I'll go with Ailton.
Goalie : Jentzsch Rookie : Friedrich MVP : If Hannover manages to avoid relegation, i would go with Bobic, too.
1. Rookie - Kuranyi - He is always exciting and gets plenty of goals and assists. Plus, he is a one of the major reasons for Stuttgart's meteoric rise. Lauth, Rau, and Friedrich would each be excellent choices as well. 2. Goalie - Hilldebrand - The obvious choice would be Kahn, but he always had a rock solid defense in front of him, plus Bayern always controlled posession. Hilldebrand made lots of great saves and looks like a major Germany star after Kahn and Lehman get too old. And BTW, Lehman isn't even in the running in my book simply because of his ridiculous temper and the laughable incidents it caused. 3. MVP - Ballack - Frankly, there is no clear choice here because a lot of guys excelled. I went with Ballack simply because he is Bayern's and Germany's best player. And he had a very good season, in spite of an ajustment period at the start of the season and injury later in the season. However, I could have just as easily gone for Frings, Koller, Micoud, Ailton, Elber, Bobic, or Christiansen. Koller and Micoud in particular were exceptionally valuable to their teams. Koller was always Dortmund's biggest threat and worked his butt off, and Micoud was Bremen's offensive engine. And the other guys scored lots of goals.
Okay, now my choice: Rookie: really difficult - in the last years you sometimes would have had problems to pick one, but this year some are in a very close choice. Forssell would be an excellent choice, but he just played half a season, that's why I rather have him as number 4. The three remaining in my selection would be Benny Lauth, Arne Friedrich and Kevin Kuranyi. Lauth finishes 3rd as he had his crisis in between. Friedrich is extremely close 2nd although he is record holder with becoming NT player after just 2 BL games. Consequently Kuranyi is my number one choice as he is not only a good striker, but also someone who assists lots of goals (14+9 = 4th best scorer). Goalie: hard choice as nobody really had an outstanding season. Lehmann did no major mistakes, but was too undisciplined and damaged his team with two ejections. Kahn probably had the worst season part of his career last fall. Jentzsch could not keep his high level lately, Hildebrand was too often injured. I would do a little surprise vote and nominate Bochum's Rein van Duijnhoven - I can't remember any mistake and although he got relatively many goals against, I think he is the one with the most difficult saves of the league. MVP: sport1.de has a five player choice and it really is a head to head race between Bobic, Ballack and Kuranyi (all within 1% with Bobic leading). I would not choose Ballack as he was injured too often and was not really able to play his game over a large part of the season. For Kuranyi this choice would be too much, he better lives with the rookie title first. Torsten Frings is someone I would rate very high as he is the one who kept Dortmund's struggling bunch under control and at least on CL course. My top 3: 3 Thomas Christiansen as scoring 19 goals for a club like Bochum almost is a sensation; I rate two other higher as he gets lots of support by their creative mids Freier and Wosz. 2 is Marcelinho, who is Hertha BSC Berlin - if he is bad, then Berlin is bad and nothing goes in the offence. My MVP choice is Fredi Bobic as simply he is the player, whose performance has most influence on the success of his club; whenever he scored Hannover did not lose; before he came on the last day of the transfer window, Hannover was without win at the bottom and now they got at least good chances on staying in.
FCB all the way Best Goalie: Well..this is a tough one but in the end it is Kahn, his saves got Bayern quite a few victories. Rookie: this season saw quite afew new emerging talents. My choice would have to be Kuranyi...one of the top scorers and geting a spot in the german national team is quite an accomplishment. MVP: Bayern's Midfield....they created the goals that won thm the tittle.
Difficult, as arguably there hasn't been a signle stand-out player for the whole season, primarily because of injuries (Ballack,etc.). I like: Lehmann, Friedrich, Micoud, Jentzsch, Bobic, and Wiese. Wiese would be my choice overall. Both Kuranyi and Lauth have to prove it for one more season as strikers before I can take fully consider them, whereas a goalie as good as Wiese at such an early age is more than promising.
Rookie: Kuranyi GK: Kahn makes the sensational play when he has to, but with that defense, I would look good, but he is my choice, and I hate him. MVP: Christiansen of Bochum, crap team, he keeps them up.
Keeper - Kahn MVP - Mahdavikia (24Games-14Assists-2Goals, he is the John Stockton of the Bundsliga) Rookie - Lauth
Wow, you haven't been watching HSV much this season, have you ? Barbarez, while without a doubt one of the more talented players in the Bundesliga, is having one of his "diva" seasons (coincidentally just after signing a lucrative new contract ) and has not really done much. Romeo, while amazingly prolific (20 odd goals in 30-something games), is not known as "Der argentinische Blindfisch" for nothing, as he misses 3 sitters for every goal he scores. Tends to disappear for 89.5 minutes of a game. Still, what a guy... So let's try that again, shall we ? HSV MVPs for 02/03: Tomas Ujfalusi and Mehdi Mahdavikia (with the latter slightly ahead and a real candidate for Bundesliga MVP). Bundesliga Rookie of the year for me has to be Arne Friedrich, as he looks like an international already. Goalkeeper and Bundesliga MVP are too close to call (Lehmann/Jentsch and Bobic/Micoud/Mahdavikia/Marcelinho/Ballack perhaps) p.s. Interesting to see, that there are now quite a few folks here, who admit to being HSV fans in their profiles and signatures. It was quite lonely here a while ago...
Re: Re: Who is your MVP, Keeper and Rookie of the Year? @ Hadj Ullelah. ABSOLUTELY AGREE with you. Keep on thinking in "schwarz, weiß, blau, du schöner HSV"
Re: Re: Who is your MVP, Keeper and Rookie of the Year? Didn't make up my mind about it too much. Just picked some names as suggestions. Ujfalusi indeed played a very good season and should be on the list. Barbarez I think is an important player alone by giving the others the feeling that there is a player with extraordinary abilities on the pitch - if you say that he didn't play that well this season, then it's okay, take him off the list. I know about Romeo's problems, but still I would leave him on the list as without his goals Hamburg would not be international next year as he is the only reliable goal scorer they have. And Mahdavikia... good player for sure, good assistant, finishing has to improve. Maybe HSV MVP of the year, but not league MVP. Two goals is not enough for an offence player and 14 assists... Ailton has 16 goals + 10 assists, Marcelinho 14 goals and 10 assists - that's better and at least latter one the better player also in this season IMO.
If Bobic is the MVP, he will be be trying to repeat the honor wearing a Hertha uniform. Little blurb I saw said he signed a two-year deal with the Berliners. By the by, the timing on this is nice--Hannover is safe, so Bobic can't be accused of holding back/avoiding injury and thereby hurting Hannover's chance to stay up. It looks like he was loyal until the effective end (regardless of what actually transpired). That's one thing I don't understand about German and European soccer--the ability of players to sign with another team for the next season BEFORE the present season is over. Raises too many questions about where the player's loyalties and interests lie, and creates issues for the club (why play the guy when you know he's not around next season--in Bobic's case, the answer is easy--you're trying to avoid relegation, but in other situations, the rationale for playing the guy diminishes). A good example is Woronin--he know's he's going to a promoted team next season, so Mainz have to be asking themselves whether he cares if Mainz too is promoted.
By the way, if you are interested in what a potential MVP candidate commands in the open BL market, it would appear, based upon my rusty translation skills (please consider my use of the word "skills" to be loose), that Bobic gets the following: 1. Two-year guaranteed contract. 2. Opportunity to make 2.1 million euros per year in salary, with 60% of the salary guaranteed (the rest, presumably, are incentives). 2. 1 million euro "hand money" (presumably a signing bonus). So, all told, the deal is worth a minimum of maybe 3.5 million euros and a maximum of 5.2 million euros.
There is a much better example for the weird situation with signing early contracts: Niko Frommer, top forward of SSV Reutlingen, signed a contract with Eintracht Frankfurt for the next season. Next weekend he playes with Reutlingen and needs a win to avoid relegation - but if they win, then Frankfurt does not promote and he'll have to stay in 2.Bundesliga instead of Bundesliga next year... The international rules allow to contact a player half a year before the contract expires I think. Nobody sticks to this rule though. Waiting until the season is over is hardly possible. The season ends in May and July 1st is the start of the new season; and we don't have to talk about national players in WC or EC seasons. Another interesting situation btw is Thomas Christiansen, who can use his 2.5 M buyout option until August 31, which means a big insecurity for Bochum. Usual would be option until about May 30 or June 15 to give the club time to react on the transfer market.
I know why teams do it, and if I were in their shoes, I'd do the same. I just think the rules should be changed, so that there is a signing window during the offseason (like the free agent season in baseball) which is the only permitted time to talk to and/or sign players from other teams. Strict "tampering" rules would be needed to enforce the sanctity of the signing window. Olaf, the Frommer example is a great one; I wasn't aware of that. I wouldn't play him if I was Reutlingen, and that's a tragedy.
I'm aware of the short window, and I know it is untidy to have players worrying about contracts in WC and EC seasons, but just think about what a great month June would be if the only time players could be signed was form June 1 to June 30. Everyday, you'd have major signings, major rumors, etc. You'd have teams openly competing for services of players, as players visit team after team. Great marketing, if you ask me. So you have a sporting reason to do it, and a marketing reason to do it. I think they outweigh the disadvantages.
I know and I would lie if I denied a certain affection to this rule, but especially smaller clubs live by being quicker than the big ones. That way Bayer Leverkusen got some Brazilians that were adored in Italy and Spain as well. If you play with open cards, then the big clubs will be able to catch the big players away from their rivals.
Keeper: That's really tough this season, I like Olaf's choice but but I take Jentsch MVP: Fredi Bobic without a doubt Rookie: Kevin Kuranyi
HSV Yesterday I was at the AOL-Arena seeing a beautiful game of the HSV. Again Romeo could have made at least 10 Goals ;-) But I don`t care we won the game and we are going to make Europe fear again the HSV (remember 1983). So why I am posting this? Also yesterday Mehdi Mahdavikia was voted by the fans as the Holsten Play of the Year which equals Team MVP. So I am hoping to see HSV wining quite often on Thursdays next saison.
Re: HSV You should have stayed in Hamburg. Today the FCG women are playing at HSV in the first of four games for promoting to Bundesliga.