Preview: This is in regards to Bayern Munich striker Lukas Podolski returning back to his former club Cologne during this summer. The unofficial football focus series returns earlier than expected, or rather my personal memories of 'Poldi' and what do I think of the whole move. The transfer saga does at times left me drained. But still, as they always say in fairytales - ...And they all live happily ever after.
Phooey. My mind is really in a muddle. Plenty of reactions running through in my head after it has been officially confirmed yesterday Bayern Munich's Lukas Podolski will be returning to his former club Cologne come this summer. Even memories from the 2006 World Cup when I first knew about him. While it may be seen as a career suicide for someone who does play regularly for the German national team (considering where Bayern and Cologne currently stand in the Bundesliga standings), it is the kind of football transfer...which warms my heart.
Which is why of the entry title, in response to the news yesterday. On the surface, it looked like it is a romantic decision. But to look beyond that, how and why did it happened in the first place? The way I looked at it, it happened when it became clear when Ottmar Hitzfeld was still the coach at Bayern Munich, he had much preferred Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose up front. But then again, Podolski came to Bayern after the 2006 World Cup which he even won the Young Player of the Tournament award apart from being part of the German national team which came in third at its own backyard. Felix Magath was the coach at that time. I put both my hands up, I only really start to follow the Bundesliga since the previous season and so whatever might had happened when Podolski was over there after the World Cup, I do not have any idea. But I remembered, the 2006 World Cup was the first time I actually knew about Podolski (given he actually first made his debut for the Mannschaft when Rudi Voeller, now Bayer Leverkusen's sporting director, was the national team coach). The story of a Polish-born footballer actually playing for Germany does intrigued me.
That was how I first knew about the man they had affectionately nicknamed 'Poldi' in the German media. For someone who is actually only 20 years of age during the World Cup three years ago, that was when I first knew of him. Or maybe not. I once came across a TV interview of Lukas Podolski like days or weeks before the World Cup itsef. I did not really remembered anything from the interview, given back then I was actually channel-surfing before I saw that. Then came the tournament itself. But then, I actually only knew more about his story after the tournament was over. It was decided before the tournament that he would join Bayern Munich from Cologne (where he made his professional debut back in 2003), and it also came at a time when Cologne got relegated at the end of the 2005/06 Bundesliga season. Then, he was in Juergen Klinsmann's squad for the World Cup which was held in Germany itself. The now-Bayern Munich coach was the coach of the German national team (he took over from Rudi Voeller after Germany's disasterous Euro 2004 campaign, where they got knocked out in the group stages) at that time.
Fast forward to the time when Ottmar Hitzfeld stepped in for the second time as Bayern Munich coach. His immediate task was to try to save a sinking ship. And that ship is Bayern, which their league position was becoming a laughing stock. I had forgotten what was their position when Felix Magath got the boot but, it was definitely unlike Bayern standards. When the 2006/07 Bundesliga season ended with Hitzfeld in charge, they were fourth. Among the players Hitzfeld got in the transfer window (to arrest the situation at Bayern) was a certain Luca Toni. Toni soon became a hit with the German football fans in his debut season at Bayern. But admist all the love-in for Toni, where does this leave Lukas Podolski then? He and Jan Schlaudraff (whom I remembered until some time last year, whom I can never be able to pronounce his surname because I always get tongue-tied when it comes to the case of the former Alemannia Aachen player) were always warming the substitutes' bench. Because Hitzfeld much preferred his signings at that time. Toni's strike partner Miroslav Klose (who came from Werder Bremen) was the other.
The Lukas Podolski people know from the 2006 World Cup, the Young Player of the tournament, becoming a shadow of his former self? They say football can be a funny game sometimes, and it is true. You may be good for your club, but you may not always produce the same form when it comes to the national team. English football fans may be aware of the case of John Barnes. Good for Liverpool, but not so on the England squad for the Jamaica-born player. Podolski is the reverse. Current England coach Fabio Capello will be probably left shaking his head on the Podolski situation. Because when it became clear that Podolski was frustrated of his time on the Bayern bench, he was a totally different character when it comes to wearing the German national team colours under Juergen Klinsmann's successor (and former assistant during the 2006 World Cup) Joachim Loew. Time and again Loew defended Podolski's performance with the national team (even when he was the assistant to Klinsmann), even when the Polish-born player was clearly not always getting a starting berth at Bayern regularly.
That was the beginning of me having the nagging suspicion that the Mannschaft coach was not honouring his word of selecting players based on form for the national team. His England counterpart whom he met in Berlin two months ago when Germany and England were playing in an international friendly in Fabio Capello would not have even cared that Lukas Podolski made his breakthrough during the 2006 World Cup. I can dare say if Capello is being tasked to make the decision, he would not have even picked Podolski for the national team for international matches when he is not playing regularly for Bayern. Like how the Italian explained why Michael Owen has not been selected (the last time Owen made an appearance under Capello, it was the Italian's second match in charge in a friendly away in France) for the England squad, the reason is simple - Owen is not playing regularly for his club. That was when it became clear to me (as an England supporter, yes...I support both the England and German national teams) that Fabio Capello honoured his word of only picking players based on form and not reputation. He does not care even if Owen was among the English players who will always have a place in English footballing history (Michael Owen was actually the architect of the famous 5-1 scoreline back in 2001 in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers against Germany in Munich where he scored a hat-trick).
Okay, back to the Lukas Podolski issue (given this entry is supposed to be about him). I said this in my reaction to the votes for the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year - My mind was screaming 'Aha! I knew it!' when I read who are the three Germany coach Joachim Loew has selected (in order) - Lionel Messi, Xavi, Fernando Torres. The reason I was screaming those words in my head is because I remembered ahead of a match (I think it was ahead one of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers), Loew declared that Lukas Podolski is better than Cristiano Ronaldo. There. But then again, one can argue that a national coach will always want to say his own player is the best. I was actually not shocked at all at Loew's selections. I had longed saw it coming. But then...everyone has their own favourite football player (I am speaking on those who are football fans, like me) and even Argentina national team coach Diego Maradona actually called the selection (given national team coaches from FIFA member associations cannot pick their own players, i.e. if they had been selected) as 'stupid' given he lamented that he cannot vote for Lionel Messi (the Argentine wonderkid has been that good for Barcelona once again, and it showed again just over the weekend when he was part of the side which Deportivo La Coruna 5-0).
As they always say in the hit-reality series 'Survivor' - 'The tribe has spoken', I actually uttered that when Lukas Podolski himself finally said on 24 November last year (the chronology of the transfer saga) that he wants out. For long, for those who had been following German football like me knew that he has to find a club where he can play regular football and not warming the Bayern Munich bench given of his talents. And for a while until then, I had already knew he had been linked to clubs not only within the Bundesliga (Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen, Hamburg...though that came about after Ivica Olic will be really heading to Bayern in the summer) but also abroad (England - Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Italy's AS Roma and France's Marseille). Podolski himself did confirmed the rumours from England, Italy and France. And time and again until Podolski himself broke the silence on his future, I had been reading various views on what should he should do. Go abroad...or stay at home? But no matter what, one thing is clear - he has to get playing time. The day after what Podolski said, his former club Cologne had announced through club president Wolfgang Overath on Cologne's AGM (Annual General Meeting) that they would bring the boy home (but they have to bear in mind of the financial side of things of bringing him back). Even if Bayern Munich coach Juergen Klinsmann, who knew him when he was the Germany coach, had said before that Podolski has to fight for his place at Bayern.
But before I get to what Klinsmann said, Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeness broke his silence in late November that Lukas Podolski can go in the summer. A week or so after that, he said on German TV channel DSF (paraphrasing) that Bayern had rebuffed the offer from Cologne. It did not meet Bayern's demands. But then all along, Cologne had always knew that if there is ever a club Podolski will join only, it will be none other than them. The hopes were raised when Podolski said a few days before Christmas that he can imagine himself remain in Germany and not heading abroad. The signs looked good at Bayern's winter break training camp in Dubai in early January (this is now this year) when chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was sending positive signals about the improved bid from Cologne. At the same time, general manager Uli Hoeness had specify €10 million for Podolski (raising interest abroad like in Italy and in England as well, after Podolski said that he wants out...given again, I follow the Premier League too). Only a few days later still in Dubai, Hoeness said something about he could well imagine that there would be a solution with Cologne by the end of the month. With Rummenigge being hopeful something would be done as well.
Lukas Podolski is hopeful this time (all these while, he was still in Germany recovering from flu), after the signals sent out by the Bayern bosses. Only for Cologne general manager Michael Meier to potentially dropped a major bombshell that it may not even go through after all. I remembered back then after reading what Meier has to say, I almost yelled 'Argh!' in my head. Before the 'Argh!', what Bayern Munich coach Juergen Klinsmann said on Podolski potentially leaving the club - "It hurts to see a special talent who just stops and does not progress because he cannot deal with the situation of having two players in front of him. I would have hoped he had some anger, which he would express in his game and he would say to himself: 'I will show them what I have got. Bayern is a club where it is either or. Either a player faces the challenge and says 'I will fight my way into the team'... or it is better to change your environment." In the entry which I posted what Klinsmann said, I said this - As much as it will do football transfers a whole lot of good that someone is changing a club not because of the amount of money offered and it is actually back to the former club, once the fighting spirit is not there...it is disappointing. Then came what Klinsmann's successor in the German national team has to say. What I was saying six days ago in reaction to what Joachim Loew told the Cologne-based Express...
Ah, it has the aura of a fatherly advice. But then, speaking to Cologne's tabloid Express yesterday, the Mannschaft coach Joachim Loew had said that Podolski's move to Cologne would not harm the striker's future with the national team. Some in the German football fraternity had already said that this mean Podolski is taking a step down by being at a club playing European football (Bayern) to one (Cologne), which is not. But, Cologne is where he made his name and the fans still remembered him over there and they would always believe that he would return back. If football is also a form of meritocracy, it does not matter which club one is playing. Anyhow in the same interview from the Express, Loew revealed he spoke to Podolski on the telephone before Christmas and told him to go "where he feels happy".
But what takes the cake from the interview is this (also in the same entry six days ago) - And before I end the entry, my favourite football quote so far. This is the first one I had picked out for this year even. When speaking about Lukas Podolski and the possibility he may be returning to his former club Cologne from Bayern Munich, this is what Germany coach Joachim Loew has to say (given Podolski plays for the German national team), from the report I got - I said to him: 'follow you heart.' All together now (or maybe only me) - aww. I like what was in the inverted commas. Fatherly advice (like I was saying earlier on in this entry), indeed. Suddenly it is like how I have always reacted to Loew defending Podolski's achievements with the German national team, I had became a softie. But it was after what the Mannschaft coach had said, the signs are pointing to that Cologne will be awaiting the return of the prodigal son when it was reported that back in the city of Cologne, preparations for a 'welcome home' party for Lukas Podolski are in place.
Then, what happened just on Sunday and the following day (which is yesterday). Various German media reports were saying on Sunday that a deal has been done between Bayern Munich and Cologne and Podolski will return this summer. I tried not to get too excited myself when I read one of my frequented German football websites, the kicker website reported it as well. Because when Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and general manager Uli Hoeness were sending positive signals when the football club was in Dubai for their winter break training camp, I was starting to be hopeful...only for Cologne general manager Michael Meier to shoot it down that it may not go through. The transfer saga was officially put to an end yesterday by none other than, Lukas Podolski himself on his own website.
And I only reported about it in the wee hours of this morning...or not really, almost an hour after midnight today. I really mean it when I said that 'I am too drained to report on the reactions, given it has been coming in thick and fast since yesterday late afternoon (at least at this part of the world)'. I also really mean it when I said this in the same entry - Maybe given I had always been a sentimental person all along, I was actually chanting 'Ole' a few times when I read that Lukas Podolski has announced by his own personal website that he has agreed a return to his former club Cologne from Bayern Munich this summer. So, here we go with the reactions. Take your pick from either here or here. With that, I was not surprised that the creator of the website on bringing Podolski back to his former club spoke to media outlets like Der Tagesspiegel and 11 Freunde on how Mr. Bernd Schnitter had always knew 'Poldi' will return 'home'.
Reuters Soccer Blog called it 'sentiment on all sides'. But how did the German media reacted? In some corners, it was seen like a step down. Still, Die Welt called Podolski is 'the last in the Bundesliga romantics', Munich-based Sueddeutsche Zeitung wished him the best of luck back at his former club, the chief editor of Der Tagesspiegel's Lorenz Maroldt welcoming Podolski's return to Cologne...saying 'A fairy tale comes true'. Frankfurt-based Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung said that Podolski is in the 'comfort zone'. Frankfurt Allgemine Zeitung also gathered the reactions from the people who had been directly, indirectly part of this saga from the start. In fact in an article yesterday, 11 Freunde collected what has been said about Podolski's return since almost a week ago when it has been gathering momentum.
It has not ended there yet. In fact, there is an interview which came out today from Sport1.de with Cologne general manager Michael Meier that the transfer 'will benefit everyone'. Hamburg's very own Uwe Seeler (whom one can count as being part of the one-club club given he had only played at Hamburg for all his entire career, and he even once turned down of heading to Inter Milan!) expressed his understanding on Lukas Podolski returning to his former club. Last but not least, it is not surprising even Germany coach Joachim Loew even echoed the same sentiments with Seeler when speaking to the Cologne-based Express. Ahh...the 'Papa' has spoken! I mean it in a good way.
Was Lukas Podolski's move to Bayern Munich from Cologne a mistake from the start, knowing what he may get himself into? I used to think in the midst of all these soap opera...that it is a 'Yes'. But then, why did he want out in the first place. Was it the competition for the starting berth at Bayern? But then, did he ever want to fight for his place at the football club, even if there is also Landon Donovan (who is actually on loan from Los Angeles Galaxy) he has to deal with when it comes to the starting position? Was it who is the coach? Since Podolski came to Bayern in 2006, he has seen Felix Magath, Ottmar Hitzfeld and now, his former Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann. Was it because...Podolski is just simply homesick? He is 23, you know. And became a father last year when his girlfriend gave birth to a son.
No matter what, we finally have a happy ending to this. It does do the world of football a whole lot of good that one 'follows his heart' (quoting what Cologne chairman Wolfgang Overath said on the return of the prodigal son), not the money when deciding his next career move. Poldi, now work hard at Bayern Munich until the summer. Prove to all of us that you are still the person we knew during the 2006 World Cup, like me! Well...in regards to his return to his former club in the summer, can I say 'Ole!' again?
