With Odilon Kossounou, Dejan Ljubicic, Donyell Malen, Wahid Faghir and Ilaix Moriba, five very interesting players have switched to the Bundesliga. SPOX and Goal introduce the quintet.
Odilon Kossounou (Bayer 04 Leverkusen)
23 million euros for a 20-year-old central defender who comes to the Bundesliga from a smaller European league? Bayer Leverkusen is betting on the future. Odilon Kossounou is not only considered to be one of the greatest talents in his position worldwide, but should also help Bayer immediately in a very crucial discipline: With the Bender twins, Aleksandar Dragovic and Tin Jedvaj, four potential central defenders have left the club, the seeded Edmond Tapsoba is out even longer after an injury.
Tapsoba was recently the only central defender who took a certain risk in the foredecks, that is: anticipated passes from the opponent to the top and then stood out on the ball. The rest of Bayer’s central cover shied away from this risk; next to Tapsoba, Jonathan Tah tried it most often. But often badly timed too. With Kossounou, Leverkusen now has a player like Lucio once, who comes out extremely aggressively and wants to catch the first ball – even before the opponent’s turn. That should change the static in Leverkusen’s defense and also replace the philosophy of closed retreat and provoke more forward defense.
The Ivorian definitely has a good portion of experience. Kossounou made his debut at Club Bruges at the age of 18, was a regular for the Belgian champions last season, has a bit of the Champions League routine and has already played six times for his home country. The colored stripe in Kossounou’s hair is supposed to be reminiscent of Paul Pogba – and not the former Stuttgart-born Danijel Ljuboja, alias chipmunk.
Dejan Ljubicic (1. FC Cologne)
After the flopped experiment with Max Meyer, FC needed a leader in the central midfield who would give a team that was quite decent in terms of fighting, but rather limited in terms of play, a few footballing impulses. The fact that the Cologne-based team not only became aware of Dejan Ljubicic, but was also able to get the 23-year-old from SK Rapid for free, is already a small coup for Cologne.
The prospective national player Ljubicic was allowed to do basic military service in the armed forces a few days before his move, and afterwards he was quite impressed by the “discipline and respect” he had learned, after all, something like that is also needed in private life. Cologne was early enough at the much sought-after Ljubicic to get rid of the competition and has brought in a player who was already the captain of the traditional club at the age of 22 and could have matured into an icon in Vienna-Hütteldorf.
The player’s history is not free from darker chapters, a planned change to the MLS burst because of an allegedly chronic knee injury, while on vacation in Bosnia Ljubicic pelted a mosque with bottles for inexplicable reasons and then got the full broadside: From fans, media and your own club. Since then, no further failures are known, the player only attracted attention from a sporting point of view: and only in the best sense of the word. And the first games with 1. FC Köln were already impressive.
Donyell Malen (Borussia Dortmund)
How great can the pressure still be for a 22-year-old who is supposed to replace a € 100 million attacker in a foreign club in a foreign league? Donyell Malen is likely to have the heaviest legacy in the Bundesliga, the Dutchman is seen as the successor to Jadon Sancho, who moved to ManUnited. Whether you are doing justice to the national player or not: the drawer has long been closed again and painting has been placed in it until further notice.
At least one constant, critics might complain now. Because Malen’s career has so far been characterized by constant ups and downs. At Ajax and Arsenal they no longer wanted him at some point, although the player himself later classified the departure from London very differently.
Two years ago, Malen scored five goals in a league game against Arnhem, something that the Eredivisie didn’t do for over half a century. Later the debut in the Elftal, participation in the European Championship – and in between the blatant lows again and again. A serious knee injury that gave away a big chance in the round of 16 against the Czech Republic, which was something like the beginning of the end for a hopeful Orange.
At BVB he should now find himself and bring something like consistency into his services. What painting is capable of on a good day should be known by now. Now it’s a matter of reaching the highest level week after week. BVB should only be an intermediate step into one of the big leagues. At least this career plan is reminiscent of Jadon Sancho.
Wahid Faghir (VfB Stuttgart)
Last weekend, Wahid Faghir was still on the pitch for Vejle BK and as is often the case with a potential relegation candidate: Faghir’s team received quite a beating. Vejle lost 4-0 to FC Copenhagen, after seven match days with just one point, the underdog graced the bottom of the table in the Danish league.
So how on earth does VfB Stuttgart get the chance to pay a rumored 4.5 million euros for an 18-year-old nobody from an inconspicuous club from Denmark? If you don’t happen to be called Sven Mislintat, a little imagination might help.
Vejle already seemed too small for the attacker, with one peculiarity standing out in particular: In a team that was rather weak on the offensive and did not create a row of scoring opportunities, Faghir was an absolutely reliable figure when it came to the quintessence of the game: his quota of The goals scored and the chances they needed was absolutely impressive. For a team that only has an average xG value of a little more than 1.0 per game, this is a decisive factor.
A milkmaid calculation could go like this: Faghir’s coldness in front of the opposing goal multiplied by the offensive power of VfB – Stuttgart has earned 58 shots on goal after three matchdays despite the tense personnel situation and thus most of the entire league – could lead to an interesting result.
Ilaix Moriba (RB Leipzig)
“The last few months,” said Ilaix Moriba at his performance in Leipzig on Wednesday, “have been the hardest of my life, also for my family. There were many things that we had to endure, some of them simply lies,” said Moriba. “We stayed calm, even if everything wasn’t always clean.”
And what was going on there: Moriba is said to have been insulted by Barca fans in a racist way, there were rumors about his consultancy agency that forced a move to Leipzig. The 18-year-old from his own talent factory has long since fallen out of favor with Barca coach Ronald Koeman.
His stature, his running style, his position, his very expansive interpretation of the midfield game from sixteen to sixteen are reminiscent of Gladbach’s Denis Zakaria. Barca apparently would have liked to keep the player, extending the contract, which dates back to 2022. But Moriba would have asked too much money, so the door was quickly closed for the financially hard-hit giant.
With a transfer from Barcelona to Leipzig, it is obvious that finances must have played a decent role. On the other hand, the player fully fits into the loot scheme and the game concept of the Brause Club. In any case, Ilaix Moriba brings everything with him to take those steps in a new environment that he no longer wanted to take at home in Barcelona.
