It’s the time when awards are handed out – championship titles, goalscorer crowns, farewell plaques. But who was actually the best player of the Bundesliga season, which is about to end? Our author discusses the five candidates.
Player of the Season – Contestant 1: Jude Bellingham
Since the departures of Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland, the English hopeful Jude Bellingham has received the most international attention of all Bundesliga players – and rightly so. As in the last season, Bellingham has often been the man who made the difference in favor of Borussia Dortmund in recent months. It was not without reason that Edin Terzic formed his tactical system around the 20-year-old, who was pushed further forward from the sixth position in the second half of the season and can concentrate more on offensive tasks.
In a way, Bellingham is now fulfilling the role he once had with Birmingham City in the English Championship. The Englishman is occasionally just as dominant as he was in the second division in Bundesliga games. On his best days, Bellingham is a box-to-box player the likes of which are very rare in the world. If something speaks against him, it’s the fact that he rarely turns things around when things aren’t going well at BVB.
Interesting statistics: 0.4 scorer points/90 min | 3.71 tackles & interceptions/90 mins | 87.2 percent short pass accuracy
Player of the Season – Candidate 2: Niclas Füllkrug
Until his calf injury in mid-April, Niclas Füllkrug was the most exciting attacker in the Bundesliga. The now 30-year-old striker from Werder Bremen has made several steps forward in what is actually an advanced footballer’s age, but even claims that he has not yet reached his zenith. His argument: experience and positional understanding is more important for a nine than athletics, because there is little room for sprints anyway.
Füllkrug was certainly the best center forward in the Bundesliga this season because other contenders were either too inconsistent (Randal Kolo Muani) or injured (Patrik Schick). In almost every game he got good final positions and also proved in the national jersey that his current high is no pure coincidence.
Interesting statistics: 21 scorer points | 0.63 goals/90 mins | 1.25 key passes/90 min
Player of the Season – Contestant 3: Jamal Musiala
Even if the 20-year-old exceptional talent didn’t perform too well during FC Bayern’s short-term crisis, the first half of the season was definitely his. Especially during the winning streak until the World Cup break, Musiala was the key player in attacking midfield, who often put his colleagues in the limelight in a brilliant way. It was often clear that he had worked intensively on his offensive positional play before this season. Because in addition to his outstanding tight dribbling, Musiala was increasingly able to shine with the right spatial understanding in the last third of the field.
However, unsurprisingly, it wasn’t possible for him to maintain this level throughout the World Cup. Added to this were the general offensive problems of FC Bayern under Nagelsmann and also in the first weeks of Thomas Tuchel’s tenure. Musiala is currently working very well alongside Thomas Müller, Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry, but does not have the exceptional status it had in the first half of the season.
Interesting statistics: 21 scorer points | 2.18 key passes/90 mins | 88.8 percent short pass accuracy
Player of the Season – Candidate 4: Julian Brandt
To a certain extent, the Dortmund counterpart to Musiala is Julian Brandt. Great potential was predicted for the former Wolfsburg and Leverkusen player for a long time, but either it didn’t fit him physically or he didn’t find the optimal tactical role in the team. However, Edin Terzic found exactly this for him. In 4-1-4-1 Brandt often plays nominally on the right side or in 4-2-3-1 classically on the ten. But regardless of his position, Brandt is the important passer in the front rooms. The fact that Bellingham is attacking many areas around him and that Sébastien Haller has been getting better and better at playing the wall player since his return is also a plus.
The huge explosion of Brandt – also in the context of the decreasing influence of Marco Reus – will make those responsible at BVB all the happier, as the 27-year-old recently extended his contract until 2026. Who remembers: Some time ago there was still a farewell to the national player in the room. There is no more talk of that. Instead, he is now trying to heave Dortmund to the championship title.
Player of the Season – Candidate 5: Dominik Szoboszlai
The outsider tip this time comes from Leipzig or Hungary. Dominik Szoboszlai has really blossomed since Marco Rose took office at RB Leipzig. Rose and he still know each other from the Salzburg days, we sometimes clashed back then, but the head coach knows how to deal with the sometimes eccentric offensive player. Unlike under Domenico Tedesco, Szoboszlai no longer stays on the wing, but moves inwards like he did in Salzburg, looking for space in the gaps and timing his finish excellently.
Szoboszlai is certainly not on everyone’s lips, which also has something to do with Leipzig’s status in the Bundesliga, but his performances are of a high standard. In general, he looks like the most constant of Leipzig’s offensive guarantors. While Christopher Nkunku went through a valley and Timo Werner was sometimes too wasteful in front of goal, Szoboszlai was mostly there to push the Saxons decisively. The DFB Cup final on June 3 could crown his season.
Interesting statistics: 0.5 scorer points/90 min | 2.66 key passes/90 mins | 49.1 percent shooting accuracy
Player of the Season: The Result
Julian Brandt was chosen because his creativity was often the highlight of a Dortmund game throughout the season. He also showed a long-missing consistency, which made him one of the key factors in Dortmund having serious championship chances right up to the end.
Otherwise, many Bundesliga players have performed strongly at times, but also dropped significantly here and there. Some players like Karim Adeyemi or Mathijs De Ligt only got into top form a little late. Others could not keep the level of the first phase of the season. In addition to Musiala, Yann Sommer should also be mentioned in this regard.
