Many well-known faces from German football now play abroad, largely unnoticed by the media. Today in the sport.de spotlight: a former FC Bayern talent receives a hefty smack, a BVB flop fulfills his “dream” and a former professional from FC Schalke 04 and Eintracht Frankfurt impresses with crazy card statistics.
Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg was once considered one of the greatest talents in European football.
For this reason, FC Bayern signed the Dane in 2012. The 27-year-old played in Munich until 2016. In the meantime, he was loaned to FC Augsburg and FC Schalke 04.
After a stint at FC Southampton, he moved to Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League in 2020.
With the Londoners, the 65-time national player of Denmark is set without ifs and buts. Höjbjerg’s statistics for 2022/2023 already include 31 league games. He recorded four goals and five assists.
Although Höjbjerg managed an assist in the important duel for the Champions League places at Newcastle United last weekend, the midfielder was unable to prevent his Spurs’ hefty 6-1 defeat. After just 21 minutes (!) they were 0:5 behind in Newcastle.
The debacle was Tottenham’s heaviest defeat in the Premier League in around a decade: Spurs lost 6-0 to Manchester City in November 2013.
BVB flop in the FA Cup final
In contrast to Höjbjerg, former BVB professional Sergio Gómez celebrated a real sense of achievement with Manchester City at the weekend.
With the Spaniard in the starting eleven, the English champions won the FA Cup semifinals against second division side Sheffield United 3-0. Gómez played through the entire game – and was enthusiastic afterwards.
“It was a dream to play at Wembley and we’re coming back for the final. The team and the fans were amazing! We don’t want to stop!” he wrote on Twitter. Another treat awaits Gómez in the cup final with the derby against Manchester United.
At BVB, the former Barca talent once missed the breakthrough. He received no significant playing time between 2017 and 2019.
A two-year loan to Spanish second division club SD Huesca followed. After that, BVB will sell him to RSC Anderlecht for 3.5 million euros. After a strong year with the Belgians, he was somewhat surprisingly drawn to ManCity for 13 million euros.
The 22-year-old is not a regular player in Pep Guardiola’s team, but he does get regular playing time there.
Ex-professional from Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Schalke 04 can’t get rid of the pedal image
Carlos Zambrano left more of an impression than Gómez in the Bundesliga. Between 2009 and 2016 he made a name for himself as a tough defender at FC Schalke 04, FC St. Pauli and Eintracht Frankfurt. In 137 games in the upper house, the Peruvian collected a whopping 50 yellow and two yellow-red cards.
After stations in Russia, Greece, Ukraine, Switzerland and Argentina, he is now back in his homeland. He has been playing there for the capital club Alianza Lima since January – and continues to live up to his image as a kicker.
On Sunday in the game against Unión Comercio (3-1) Zambrano saw the yellow card. It was his third in five league games of the recently started season.
With his excessive hardness, Zambrano once drove even one of the great center forwards in world football to despair: Robert Lewandowski.
“All he wanted was to break my legs. He didn’t even look at the ball,” the former FC Bayern striker complained in an interview with the Polish magazine “Kwartalnik Sportowy” last year.
Steven Hot
