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 Arling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski, who scored 50 goals for their teams,” this scathing comment to the Bavarian newspaper “Merkur” was made by Michael Rummenigge, the former player in the Bundesliga. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in the 1980s and 1990s and the brother of former Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
In a tournament known as the fiercest and most effective attackers in history, such as the “gunners” Gerd Muller or Miroslav Klose, who scored the most in the World Cup, and finally the Polish Robert Lewandowski, Volkrug is still far from goal-shooters like Lewandowski, who broke the numbers in his eight seasons with Bayern, and was the best of them. Scoring 41 goals in the 2021 season, one goal behind Gerd Mueller’s 1972 season.
In the history of the Bundesliga, which began in 1963, No. 17 is the lowest goal in terms of scorers, carried by Freddy Bobic (from Stuttgart) in the 1996 season, and before that Thomas Allofs (from Cologne) and Roland Wohlfahrt (from Bayern Munich) in 1989. He explains Freddy Bobic said, “I really don’t want to hold this record forever. Numbers are here to be broken, both ways.”
And after many achievements with Bayern and being crowned the top scorer in the last five seasons, Lewandowski left last summer to Barcelona, Spain, where he also tops the scorer’s ranking with 21 goals, while the Norwegian Erling Haaland made the journey to Manchester City, where he achieves a wonderful season and tops the Premier League scorer ranking. Premier League, with 36 goals.
The former Stuttgart 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.”
German international Niklas Volkrug, Werder Bremen striker, seemed the closest to avoiding this disturbing record, but he has been absent since mid-April due to a calf injury. And if he partially regained training with Bremen, his participation before the end of the season is not confirmed.
Willy Volkrug, who was discovered at the age of twenty-nine in the national team before the World Cup 2022, the Frenchman Randall Kolo Mwani, who started his career in the German League this season, and the Italian Vincenzo Grifo with 14 goals.
And they must score three goals in their last two matches with their teams, Eintracht Frankfurt and Freiburg, to equal the number of Bobic, Allofs and Wohlfahrt.
As for Bayern Munich star Serge Gnabry and Frenchman Christopher Nkunku (Leipzig), who scored 13 goals, the task seems more complicated, similar to 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. .
