Two rounds before the conclusion of the German Football League, it will be a “negative” record for breaking the Bundesliga, which started 60 years ago, with the top scorer having only 16 goals in his account.
“When I read the list of the Bundesliga’s top scorers, I die laughing: Volkrug is in first place, with 16 goals. I think of Haaland and Lewandowski, who were guaranteed 50 goals for their teams.”
The scathing commentary for Bavarian daily Merkur/TZ was made by Michael Rummenigge, a former player for Bayern and Borussia Dortmund in the 1980s and 1990s and brother of former Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz.
In a tournament known as the fiercest and most effective attackers in history, such as the “gunners” Gerd Muller or Miroslav Klose, the most scored in the World Cup, and finally the Polish Robert Lewandowski, Niklas Volkrug, striker Werder Bremen, is currently top scorer with 16 goals.
He is still far from “Turiger” (scorer) and “goal shooters” like Lewandowski, who broke records in his eight seasons with Bayern, the best of which was scoring 41 goals in the 2021 season, one goal behind Gerd Mueller’s 1972 season.
– Scarcity of international cloth –
In the history of the Bundesliga, which began in 1963, the number 17 is the lowest goal in terms of scorers, carried by Freddy Bobic (Stuttgart) in the 1996 season, and before that Thomas Allofs (Koln) and Roland Wollfarth (Bayern Munich) in 1989.
“I don’t really want to keep this number forever. Numbers are meant to be broken, both ways,” Bobic told Germany’s SID, an affiliate of AFP.
And after many achievements with Bayern and being crowned top scorer in the last five seasons, Lewandowski left last summer to Barcelona, Spain, where he also leads the scorers’ ranking (21), while the Norwegian Erling Haaland made the journey to Manchester City, where he achieves a wonderful season and tops the Premier League scorers’ ranking (36). .
The former striker continued, “With Erling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski, the Bundesliga lost two high-class scorers. The appropriate alternative did not come. The Bundesliga does not have world-class scorers, we must say this clearly.”
Volkrug seemed the closest to avoiding this annoying record, but he has been absent since mid-April with a calf injury. And if he partially regained training with Bremen, his participation before the end of the season is not confirmed.
Behind the German international, who at the age of twenty-nine discovered the “Die Manschaft” team before the World Cup 2022, stands the Frenchman Randall Kolo Mwani, who started his career in the German League this season, and the Italian Vincenzo Grifo, with 14 goals. They must score three goals in their last two matches with their teams Eintracht Frankfurt and Freiburg, to equal the records of Bobic, Allofs and Wolfarth.
The task seems more complicated for Serach Gnabry (Bayern Munich) and the Frenchman Christopher Nkunku (Leipzig), who scored 13 goals, similar to the Frenchman Marcus Thuram (Borussia Monchengladbach), who is also unable to play.
As evidence of the offensive drought in the Bundesliga this season, Nkunku is still able to succeed Lewandowski, despite his absence from almost a third of the season’s matches, due to a tear in the outer ligament of his left knee before the start of the 2022 World Cup, then a muscle rupture a few weeks after his return.
