Season 2015/16: The great era of Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich comes to an end with the renewed championship – but the farewell gift from Bayern bosses causes astonishment. And in Wolfsburg, in addition to the poker player Max Kruse, a “career clown” is also causing a stir!
With his third Bundesliga title in a row, Munich’s successful coach Pep Guardiola said goodbye to the Bavarian capital and moved on to Manchester City in England. However, before his last match at the arena, the Catalan had to endure a very special situation. Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge presented Guardiola with a special gift: a Brazilian artist had made an acrylic figure of Bayern mascot Berni for 3,000 euros.
When the former national player Rummenigge Guardiola proudly handed the bear, which took some getting used to (as is well known, one can argue about taste), he said that the outgoing coach was a “great ambassador not only for our club, but for the whole Bundesliga” had been. Unfortunately, it is not known whether the fragile sculpture was given a place of honor over on the island as a reminder of his years in Munich or whether it was damaged during transport to Manchester. But one thing is certain: FC Bayern needed more time to win the championship in the 2015/16 season than it has in a number of seasons. The record champions had to wait until matchday 33 before they were finally crowned German champions in this round as well, although in the end they were even ten points ahead of Borussia Dortmund.
As always, Wolfsburg offers the best entertainment
A gloriously dopey fan banner caused not only excitement but also hilarity this season. Because VfL Wolfsburg had overtaken their neighbors from Braunschweig in the all-time Bundesliga table, the VfL supporters wrote a greeting to their rivals at the home game against Gladbach: “Blue and yellow pigs see it, we’ll be behind us forever”. That just missed it! Of course, the Eintracht fans didn’t take long to ask for an answer and at the next game against MSV Duisburg they hung up a banner with the following words: “Club for dyslexics! You’ll stay behind you forever!!!” On the other hand, the banner of the Darmstadt fans in the Veltins Arena on Schalke was extremely successful: “We would also be satisfied with a Knappen defeat today!”
In Wolfsburg, after winning the Supercup against FC Bayern, they dreamed of a good season. But coach Hecking (“We have tasted blood”) and his team experienced a turbulent season. And that was mainly due to the scandals surrounding his players. While Max Kruse came into the public eye because he forgot 75,000 euros in a taxi after a poker night, the events surrounding the enfant terrible Nicklas Bendtner seemed to be far worse.
When he was released in April, Wolfsburg’s sporting director Klaus Allofs chose drastic words: “Specific things happened at Nicklas. We saw him as a threat to our community. We had to react.” And a Danish newspaper also made a devastating judgment these days: “Bendtner probably holds the Danish record for wasted talent. He’s a career clown!” Of course, the whole fuss left its mark on the team. Sky commentator Marc Hindelang put it in a nutshell during the away game in Ingolstadt: “At VfL there was so much sand in the gearbox that you could play beach volleyball.”
All of Cologne against Augsburg keeper Hitz
In the end, Eintracht Frankfurt had to be relegated. But the first game against 1. FC Nürnberg faded into the background from one moment to the next when it became known that defender Marco Russ was suffering from testicular cancer. The tumor had just been discovered by accident. Because an extremely high level of the growth hormone HCG was reported during a doping control, the doctors ordered the Eintracht defender to be examined immediately. Despite his illness, Russ even completed the first leg. He then experienced the rescue of Eintracht in Nuremberg in the hospital. Marco Russ had a successful operation on the morning of the match day.
A curious action heated up tempers in Cologne: When Augsburg’s keeper Marwin Hitz intentionally abused the penalty spot in the RheinEnergieSTADION with his cleats in December, the excitement among the fans and officials of the FC was great. Mainly because Anthony Modeste slipped on the battered piece and couldn’t put the penalty in the box. The disappointment at the 1-0 defeat was mixed with anger at the outrage of the Augsburg goalkeeper. But one person reacted calmly, deliberately and with a pinch of humor that is typical of Cologne: Hans Rütten, head of the Cologne sports facilities, immediately sent an invoice for 122.92 euros to Marwin Hitz. The sum was intended to compensate for the damage that the city of Cologne had suffered when replacing the lawn. Rütten explained with a smile: “It’s not about the money for me. But a little punishment doesn’t hurt.” Incidentally, Hitz paid the bill immediately – as a donation to the children’s clinic on Amsterdamer Strasse.