It is a well-repeated statement that the Premier League is the most unforgiving league in the world, and even the best of players take a fair amount of time to adapt to the rigours of the league. There are some world class players who have hardly set the Premier League stage alight but gone on to other leagues to do great things. Here, we take a look at such players who did so in the Bundesliga.
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Note: Players like Nuri Sahin and Shinji Kagawa have not been included in this piece. This includes players who first flopped in England and went on to have a distinguished career in Germany. Also, the list is not in any particular order
#1 Jerome Boateng
After signing for Manchester City just before the 2010 World Cup commenced, Boateng had a very forgettable time at the City of the Manchester Stadium. He did make 24 appearances that season, but could never really nail down a spot in the team. The likes of Pablo Zabaleta, Alex Kolarov, Wayne Bridge and Micah Richards were ahead of him in the full-back pecking order. At centre-back, Roberto Mancini preferred Vincent Kompany, Kolo Toure and even Dedryck Boyata.
It did not help the German’s case that midway through the season, he had a training ground bust-up with Mario Balotelli, with the two men having to be separated after coming to blows with each other. Boateng eventually left City to join Jupp Heynckes’s Bayern Munich at the start of the 2011-12 season.
The big defender said it was a move that would help him play more regularly for the Germany national team. And boy, has it helped him or what? He is now probably the first name on Joachim Low’s team-sheet for Germany and on Carlo Ancelotti’s Bayern teamsheet as well.
Since he left City, Boateng has won the Bundesliga on four consecutive occasions, having lost the title to Dortmund in his first season. He won the Champions League in 2013, but apart from that, reached the final in 2012, and on the last three occasions, Bayern have been losing semifinalists.
Apart from that, with Germany, he has been an integral part of the squad that has reached two European Championship semifinal and won the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, Germany’s first in 24 years.
For Boateng, the Premier League didn’t quite bring the best out of him, but his move back to Germany has helped him become one of the best defenders of his time.
#2 Anthony Modeste
The French striker is now among the most feared marksmen in the Bundesliga and has been FC Koln’s most important player ever since he joined them in the summer of 2015. Modeste once played for Blackburn Rovers. He joined them on loan from Bordeaux in January 2012. He was brought in to help Rovers avoid relegation in the midst of what was a horrible season with the fans being disillusioned with the work of their Indian owners, Venky’s.
And Modeste had a terrible time at Ewood Park. In the nine games that he did play, he was on the pitch for 387 minutes and scored no goals as Rovers were relegated after an 11-year stint in the top flight.
After another stint in France with Bastia, Modeste moved to Germany. He joined Hoffenheim in 2013. He scored 23 goals in 62 games over two seasons for Hoffenheim when Peter Stoger’s Koln came calling. At Koln, the Frenchman’s game has gone up another level. He has scored 32 goals in 50 games, including 14 goals in 14 games this season in all competitions. This season, he is only behind Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the Bundesliga goalscorer’s chart.
#3 Peter Gulacsi
The Hungarian custodian is currently RB Leipzig’s first choice goalkeeper in their fairytale run to the top of Bundesliga. Gulacsi was signed by Liverpool in 2007 from MTK Budapest when he was 17 years old.
He spent until 2013 on Liverpool’s books but did not make a single appearance for the Reds. Through Gulacsi’s spell at Anfield, there were four managers at the helm – Rafa Benitez, Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish and Brendan Rodgers – but none of them gave him a first-team appearance.
He had spells at Hereford Town, Derby County and Hull City on loan, and spent a few games on the Liverpool bench as Pepe Reina’s understudy. But in 2013, he moved to Red Bull Salzburg. He made 90 appearances for the Austrian club in two seasons that he spent there.
The Hungarian moved across the border to another Red Bull-owned club, in Leipzig. Under Ralf Rangnick last year, he helped Leipzig gain promotion to the Bundesliga, and after the former Schalke coach was promoted to Director of Football, Gulacsi has ensured that Ralph Hassenhuttl bed into the job easily. And it has been a dream so far for Leipzig as 13 games into their first ever Bundesliga season; they are top of the league.
#4 Franco Di Santo
Di Santo was signed by Chelsea in 2008 and was supposed to take the Premier League by storm. But he made only 16 appearances in his only season at Stamford Bridge and didn’t score a single goal. He had further spells in the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers and Wigan Athletic but was part of the relegation squads for both those clubs.
After Wigan had been relegated in 2013, he moved to Germany to play for Werder Bremen. He scored 18 goals in 50 games as he spent two seasons at Bremen. He made the switch from Werder after a couple of seasons at the club to move to Schalke at the beginning of last season. He has scored eight goals in 30 games, and he has been a really good foil for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar as the Dutchman is not getting any younger. Schalke currently find themselves eighth in the Bundesliga.
#5 Kevin De Bruyne
The Belgian signed for Chelsea in January 2012 but didn’t play for the first team until the pre-season that summer. After playing in a couple of friendlies, he was loaned out to Werder Bremen. He scored ten goals in 34 games in his first spell in the Bundesliga. He then went back to Chelsea after a season with Bremen and hardly found any first team football, making only three appearances for Jose Mourinho’s men.
After a long transfer saga, De Bruyne moved back to Germany but this time to another club wearing green – Wolfsburg. In his time at the Volkswagen Stadium, De Bruyne transformed into the world-class player that he is today. In 72 appearances for the Wolves, he scored 20 goals and provided 22 assists.
A move back to England was not far away, and when Manuel Pellegrini came calling with the big bucks, a move to the Etihad Stadium was too hard to resist. De Bruyne might be a Premier League superstar now, but he was well and truly a flop before he went back to Germany, resurrected his career and became a true world class player.
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