“There are two reasons the young man on the bicycle doesn’t register with me. The first is that I don’t expect him to arrive on a bike. The second is that I’m craning my neck to look at the roof of St. Pauli’s clubhouse. Three flags are flying atop the building. The middle one carries the FC St. Pauli crest and club colors, brown and white. The one on the left advertises a crowdfunding project to raise money for underprivileged residents of St. Pauli, the working-class quarter of Hamburg. The one on the right is the gay pride flag. While I’m squinting against the bright sun, the young man gets off his bicycle.” 8 by 8

“After two matchdays, which club is currently best in the Bundesliga? Two weeks into the season, only Borussia Dortmund, FC Bayern Munich and Bayer 04 Leverkusen still carry perfect records, with BvB tops in the table due to their +8 goal differential.  Are they the best so far, though?  Personally, the answer is a qualified yes — no goals allowed, incisive play, and a whopping 53% conversion rate of shots on goal (eight goals in 15 SOGs), while Roman Bürki has been perfect in stopping opponents’ SOG (three saves in three SOGs).  Dortmund look more robust, healthier, than they did all of last season.  Their only blight thus far was the almost-ambush in Norway Thursday in Europa League action by Odd Grenland, who notched three early goals before Die Schwarzgelben answered with four. One could say that Thursday’s match was a learning experience for Thomas Tuchel, and fortunately, a rather inexpensive one.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“I have always been a keen student of Bundesliga statistics, as readers of the Fanatic may well know. Sometime during the summer I had been in the middle of putting together another small number-crunching project about FC Bayern’s trophy cabinet, only to transform it into something else completely. Inspired by a little pocket book from Baedecker containing a series of infographics about Bavaria, I had the idea of turning some of the names and numbers from raw text into pretty graphs and diagrams. At first it was just meant to be a small feature on FC Bayern. A graphical representation of their domestic trophy catalogue, along with a couple of other random facts. Then, it all snowballed. I quite liked the look of my creation, and despite my being a relative amateur in the world of graphic design I allowed things to take their own course. Before long, I had created similar pages for a couple of other Bundesliga clubs.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“The Bundesliga regularly tops the rankings of league attendances amongst Europe’s elite top flight divisions outperforming the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A in terms of numbers of spectators inside stadiums. The German top division is also famed for its fair ticket prices that allow fans to enjoy top quality football without being ripped off in the process. But just what does it cost to watch your favourite team live and which club offers the best deal to its loyal fans? The results based on the cheapest season ticket prices on offer for the 2015/16 season by the 18 Bundesliga clubs may surprise you.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“Jürgen Klopp is gone. Thomas Tuchel is here. How has the city of Dortmund responded? The Summer of 2015 has certainly been a strange time in Dortmund. For one thing, the city’s weather has been a rollercoaster. One week, people endure heat and West-Germany feels like the hottest place on earth. Another week it seems like autumn arrived early this year. And there is an emptiness that feels like living in a town from a Western movie; there is no World Cup or European Championship. To be honest, the Copa America or the Gold Cup don’t really heat me up. So you have much time to think about what happened last season and what will happen this upcoming season.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“While fans are wondering what’s been cooking with their Bundesliga clubs before the season start, teams are getting up to speed with their pre-season preparations. With the exception of those who represented their national team over the summer, players have returned to their clubs to get ready for the new campaign. In addition to the new boys arrived in the summer transfer market, clubs also eagerly anticipate the return of players recovered from long-term injuries. And we should also consider players looking for fresh opportunities, as the new season marks a new chapter in their careers. Whether they just arrived to a new surrounding to change their fortunes or determined to get more playing times at their current club, we, at Bundesliga Fanatic, compiled a dream team of players looking for a fresh start in the 2015-16 season.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“In 1987, the city of Berlin (although still divided at the time) celebrated its 750^th anniversary. In its famous Olympic Stadium, Thomas von Heesen led the victorious players of Hamburger SV up the steps to be presented with the DFB Pokal (the German Cup) on June 20^th of that notable year. Bearing in mind the club’s long and proud heritage and its recent successful history, no one could have foreseen that this – up to now – would be the last significant honour won by German football’s Dinosaur.” Football Pink

“Turkish footballers playing in the Bundesliga is a fairly common sight, which, when you consider the history of Turks in post-war Germany, shouldn’t be too surprising. In the midst of the West German economic upturn of the 1960’s, the country was suffering from a severe lack of labourers to meet demand. To rectify this, the West German government, through various arrangements and agreements with various other European nations, began to admit large amounts of guest workers into the country; the vast majority of these workers came from Turkey. Many of these Turkish migrant workers ended up staying in West Germany and eventually would bring their families over and eventually become permanent residents. It is the offspring of these initial migrant workers that we see lining up for Bundesliga sides week in and week out.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“‘It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play’. But it was fifty years ago today that Bayern Munich made it into the Bundesliga and set in motion half a century of trophy winning both at home and abroad. It was the 26th June 1965 and Bayern Munich knew that a win over Tennis Borussia Berlin would seal their long-awaited promotion to the top-tier of German football. The wrong they felt had been done, by denying them a place in the debut Bundesliga season, was to be rectified.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“Kicker rankings continue in Monday’s edition of the magazine and FC Bayern München suffers a serious drop in the midfield. Bayern has crumbled, the worst drop ever, and Gonzalo Castro of Leverkusen has distinguished himself. Xabi Alonso is completely gone out of the listing. The Spaniard’s ‘bad’ case was a loss in form, playing only four times better than average, having under-par European performances and missing a penalty against Dortmund. Philipp Lahm makes the list, he he drops out of the World or International Class for the firs time since 2011. Injury and lack of rest, due to an injury crisis, made him play exhausted.” Bayern Central

“Among the reasons for the changes are injuries, not enough games played, only one German club in the semi-finals of Europe, and a let-go by FC Bayern in the late stages of the season. As a reminder, a player is not evaluated not on his potential but on the performances from January to June with a minimum of 9 games played in the Bundesliga, Pokal, Europe or internationals.” Bayern Central

“One expected a comedown after the midweek Champions’ League quarter-final heroics against FC Porton, and this was clear as FC Bayern took on strugglers Hertha BSC at a packed Allianz Arena. The tight 1-0 win was enough to send Bayern fifteen points clear of second-placed VfL Wolfsburg with four matches remaining, and the Wolves’ defeat by the same score in Mönchengladbach was enough to ensure a record-extending twenty-fifth Bundesliga crown (and twenty-sixth German championship in all) for Die Roten.” Bundesliga Fanatic

“It was: The Week That Shook German Football (RealD 3D). First, late on Tuesday night, Bruno Labbadia was appointed manager of the bottom team, Hamburger SV. The former Kaiserslautern striker and inventor of the fist-pump goal celebration had already graced (?) the AOL/Nordbank/Imtech/Kühne-Palace/Whatever-Arena bench five years ago and the sporting director, Dietmar Beiersdorfer, had no choice but to go back to a familiar face in the club’s hour of need: HSV had run out of the German-speaking coaches that had not yet been hired at some point over the last two decades. Within a few hours, however, the new/old messiah’s wings – messiahs do have wings, don’t they? – were already clipped when Beiersdorfer involuntarily dispensed with the charade that the hot contender Thomas Tuchel had been turned down by the club the night before.” Guardian

“Borussia Dortmund have announced the departure of their manager, Jürgen Klopp, at the end of the season. The BVB manager has asked the club to be released after enduring a difficult season and Dortmund called a press conference at 1.30pm (12.30pm BST) on Wednesday, where chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke confirmed that the club had agreed to release him early from his contract.” Guardian (Video)

“Wolfsburg’s 4-1 demolition of Bayern Munich at the end of January sent shock waves through the football world, announcing Wolfsburg to the neutrals who hadn’t yet noticed their success this year. Despite a Bas Dost double, including a beautifully ambiguous intentional volley, one man stole the show – Kevin De Bruyne, his assist and brace exemplifying his role as the star man of the team.” Bundesliga Fanatic