The Bundesliga's Best
May 30, 2007
Up front
No one player was more important to his team than Bochum's Theofanis Gekas. The Greek forward went on a tear in the second half of the season, lifting his side from the relegation zone to eighth place in the standings and topping the league with 20 goals. Gekas is moving to Leverkusen, where he'll have to show that 2006-7 was no fluke. Until then, he can take pride in a breakthrough season.
Mario Gomez had 14 goals and eight assists, fewer than Bremen's Miroslav Klose, but that was due to injury. And unlike Klose, Gomez finished the season strongly, scoring a crucial equalizer in the second-to-last game to keep Stuttgart's title drive on track. At the tender age of 21, he's poised to become a regular in the German national squad.
On the bench: Klose (Bremen), Kuranyi (Schalke), Zidan (Mainz), Frei (Dortmund)
The midfield
The players themselves voted Bremen's Brazilian playmaker Diego the season's MVP, and they get no argument here. Thirteen goals and 14 assists in his first season in the Bundesliga speak volumes, and the truly scary thing is: he's only 22!
Diego is joined by two rising young stars from Stuttgart who had a huge impact this spring. Thomas Hitzlsperger, nicknamed the "Hammer," has the hardest shot in the German game, and he scored in each of Stuttgart's final two come-from-behind wins.
Like Hitzlsperger, Roberto Hilbert finished the season with seven goals, four of which came during the streak of eight straight wins that sealed the title for Stuttgart. He deservedly won his first cap for the German national side during that stretch, and it's easy to picture him, at only 22, getting better and better.
Completing our dream midfield is Leverkusen's Bernd Schneider. One of the league's most consistent and technically proficient players, the 33-year-old veteran had six goals and 11 eleven assists. More importantly, he held things together on a team that wasn't clicking early, leading Leverkusen to fifth place and a spot in the UEFA Cup.
On the bench: Frings (Bremen), Pardo (Stuttgart), Marcelinho (Wolfsburg), Misimovic (Bochum)
At the back
Nuremberg and Schalke had the league's stingiest defenses, so they're the place we start building our back four. At left back, the honors go to Nuremberg's Javier Pinola. The Spaniard with the league's worst hairstyle really performed in Nuremberg's German Cup triumph, scoring twice in penalty shoot-outs to keep his side alive in the tournament and adding a clutch assist in the final.
In the middle, no defender was more intimidating than Schalke's Marcelo Bordon. A devout Catholic he may be, but his Christian charity certainly does not extend to opposing strikers in the box. Bordon also scored three goals as Schalke, once again, came up tragically short.
He's paired with Stuttgart's unsung hero, Matthieu Delpierre. The Frenchman made very few mistakes this season despite playing in all but one of the team's league and cup matches. What's more he was able to stay in front of his man without fouling, picking up only four yellow cards over that long stretch.
Schalke's Rafinha fills out the back line. He ended the season with a respectable two goals and three assists, but what doesn't show up in the statistics is the amount of pressure the speedy Brazilian created on the right-hand flank. At only 22 he played with a maturity and acumen way beyond his years.
On the bench: Naldo (Bremen), Mertesecker (Bremen), Wolf (Nuremberg), Madlung (Wolfsburg)
Between the posts
And what's true of Rafinha goes double for Schalke keeper Manuel Neuer. The 21-year-old deposed one of the league's most seasoned number ones, Frank Rost, in the tenth week, and for the rest of the season he never conceded more than two goals in a match. And he did that in the high-pressure atmosphere of Schalke, which was gunning for its first German league title in 49 years. If his teammates up front hadn't frozen up against Dortmund, Neuer could have capped off a remarkable rookie season with the Bundesliga's ultimate prize.
On the bench: Schäfer (Nuremberg)