In addition to the established top performers such as Harry Kane, Granit Xhaka and Julian Brandt, a few new faces away from the spotlight were also able to come into focus. Flashscore takes a look at the high-flyers of the Bundesliga first half of the season and highlights the unusual paths they took to find their way into the elite class.
Deniz Undav: A breakthrough with tireless commitment
Deniz Undav came to VfB Stuttgart on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League before this season and was able to assert himself despite great competition on the Neckar. With a lot of commitment, fighting spirit and an impressive record in the first half of the season. In just 13 games he scored 9 goals and made 3 assists. The 27-year-old from Achim had to fight a lot of headwinds in his youth near the Hanseatic city of Bremen.
The Werder verdict: “Too small and too fat”
His training club, Werder Bremen, temporarily took away his belief in a professional career. “As a little boy, everyone had the dream of becoming a footballer. And it felt like my dream was shattered when Werder couldn’t continue,” the goalscorer looks back. Above all, the reasoning had bothered the young Undav: he had been told by those responsible in Bremen at the time. He is too small and too fat. “That was very, very hard.”
Via SV Meppen to the big stage
In the third division at SV Meppen, the slightly stocky-looking Undav, who usually celebrated his goals with tense upper arms, was the outstanding player. He almost pushed the Emslanders into the second division in 73 games with 24 goals and 15 assists. Even after moving to Union Saint-Gilloise in the Belgian league, he not only confirmed his performance, but also went one better, so that Brighton & Hove Albion became aware of him and signed him. Coach Roberto De Zerbi believed in his abilities, but wanted to give him match practice through a loan, as Undav revealed in the current gym.
VfB coach Hoeneß switched to dual leadership because of Undav
The loan player from Brighton & Hove Albion has now become an integral part of Stuttgart’s starting eleven. Even when 16-goal man Serhou Guirassy returned before the game against Werder Bremen, VfB coach Sebastian Hoeneß switched to a dual leadership for the first time. Since then, the two have formed probably the most dangerous strike duo in the league. For Undav, the Bundesliga breakthrough could come at just the right time with a view to the coming summer.
Xavi Simons: Super talented second-chance education
There was never any serious doubt about Xavi Simons’ talent. Even as a child, the son of a professional footballer played against opponents who were ten years older than him. After moving to Barcelona’s famous La Masia youth academy, the extroverted Simons quickly received inquiries off the pitch: he was seen in Nike commercials alongside superstars such as Ronaldinho and Neymar. But shouldn’t this attention come a little too soon for a teenager?
More of a social media star than a football star
The only numbers that really impressed at the time were his social media reach. The Dutchman had amassed 4.2 million Instagram followers at the age of 19, but at the same time had only played 331 minutes of professional football in eleven appearances for the Paris Saint-Germain professional team and had not yet scored a single goal. At a time when some youngsters make their breakthrough into the first teams at the age of 16 or 17, the first doubts arose about the director’s global career.
Change of air brings success
But Simons, who was born in Amsterdam, has provided the answer since he left the French capital. He first moved to PSV Eindhoven and destroyed the Eredivisie there in a year before PSG took him back with a buyback option. In the current season, Simons is impressive in the Bundesliga for RB Leipzig with four goals and seven assists in 16 Bundesliga games so far.
The midfielder shines with impeccable technique and a great start and can change the tempo of the game in his favor in an instant. The 20-year-old is now an eleven-time Dutch senior international and the future seems to be open to him. Even if the next few years of the super talent probably won’t be in Leipzig, we’ll still hear about his development beyond Germany.
Victor Boniface: With will and physique to success
If you see Victor Boniface playing for Bayer Leverkusen these weeks, you might quickly get the impression that the Nigerian’s success is God-given. Good technique, coupled with a strong finish, go hand in hand with the irresistible physicality with which he pushes through opposing defenses like a steamroller. But the attacker’s greatest quality is that he never gave up in his career, even under the most difficult conditions.
Serious setbacks after moving to Europe
A product of the Real Sapphire football academy in the Nigerian capital Lagos, he made his first steps in Europe at just 18 years old, joining Norwegian club Bodo/Glimt. At this point he was already a junior national player for his country, but no one in European football knew him yet. Just two weeks after arriving in northern Norway, he tore his cruciate ligament during training.
Boniface was young, didn’t know anyone and had to sit out for six months. But he won this battle and was able to develop into a permanent fixture in the team of the European Cup participants. A move to Club Bruges was about to be completed when misfortune intervened for the second time: in November 2021, Boniface tore his cruciate ligament again. This time it was even more serious. He would not be able to play again for over 12 months.
Via Belgium to the Bundesliga
Before Boniface had even turned 20, he had already experienced everything bad about a football career. While he was recovering from this second injury, his mother also died, and the double blow of fate – professional and personal – brought him to the edge of the abyss, to the brink of complete abandonment of football and into depression. But Boniface recovered again and hit the jackpot with a move to Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium.
In Belgium, Boniface played his way onto the list of Europe’s top clubs.
AFP
In the league, the Nigerian became one of the team’s best players, in Europe he impressed against Union Berlin and also against Bayer Leverkusen when he left a lasting impression in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Europa League at the BayArena. By now it was clear to Simon Rolfes & Co. that they had to do everything they could to get this player. The Werkself prevailed in the discussions, resulting in 24 scorers in 23 appearances so far.
Jan-Niklas Beste: About the stationary ball into the football Olympus
With 13 scorer points, Jan-Niklas Beste is in sixth place among the most successful players of the current Bundesliga season. For a long time, Beste could only have dreamed of being in the company of players like Harry Kane, Leroy Sane or Lois Openda. After his very successful youth days in Borussia Dortmund’s youth teams, luck didn’t seem to be kind to the man from Hamm in Westphalia.
The bumpy road to Heidenheim
On the contrary: three long-term ligament injuries plus two tough muscle injuries in five years, that’s the sobering record of the midfielder, who has since been loaned to the Netherlands, until 2020. But the hard work should pay off at the latest with the move to Jahn Regensburg: in two years in Bavaria collected Best 14 goal participations, which put him on the radar of the ambitious second division club Heidenheim.
Under his new coach Frank Schmidt, Beste quickly developed into a key player. His unpredictable left foot has already brought the men from the Ostalb many an unexpected point win, and he has even been used for an entry in the history books: On August 26th, Beste scored the first Bundesliga goal in Heidenheim’s history against TSG Hoffenheim, and later delivered He even set another Bundesliga record with three standard assists in one game.
Best way doesn’t have to be the end
Beste also arrived privately in Heidenheim and became a father for the first time at the end of 2023. And yet the mechanisms of professional football do not stop at the soon-to-be 25-year-old: his strong performances are attracting international interest; most recently, the traditional Italian club AC Florenz is said to have knocked on the Heidenheim team. Just as not many expected Beste to become the leading Bundesliga player, conquering the wide world of football doesn’t seem out of the question for him either.
2023-12-30 09:28:48
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