TSG Hoffenheim could have been the big winners of the round in terms of the relegation battle. No club from the bottom third of the table picked up three points at the weekend. But TSG slipped to a 3-1 defeat against 1. FC Cologne and missed a big opportunity in their quest to stay up. Very much to the disappointment of Christoph Baumgartner: “We played with too little power, especially in the first half. That’s what has set us apart in recent weeks, you always had the feeling that we wanted to win more. We didn’t have that energy. We could have taken a big step forward; now it feels like a big step backwards. There wasn’t a player on the pitch who produced his best performance. And that annoys me. We all need to look in the mirror and admit to ourselves: that was way too little.”

With four goals in his last four Bundesliga appearances, including a brace in the 3-1 win...

The second last home game of the season takes place on Friday April 29 when Greüther...

Bad news for VfL Wolfsburg and Maxence Lacroix: the centre-back, who was forced off at half-time in the match against Mainz, suffered a serious injury to his right shoulder. Tests on Monday revealed the extent of the injury, which the 23-year-old sustained in an aerial duel with Karim Onisiwo just before the break. Lacroix will undergo surgery and miss the Wolves’ final few matches of the season.

Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool have all been linked with the star. Indeed, a player of his quality, after winning the world’s biggest tournament, could certainly make the step up to a bigger side.

Marius Wolf has been called up to the German national team for the first time thanks to his strong performances in recent weeks. Nico Schlotterbeck and Emre Can will also link-up with the Germany squad. who will face a Belgium side including Thomas Meunier in a friendly match. For the first time since June 2022, Sebastien Haller has been called-up by the Ivory Coast, who are fighting for qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Five players missing at the start of the final training week On Wednesday afternoon, the Foals...

January 27th 2022 marks the 77th anniversary of the day on which the survivors of Auschwitz...

Of course, Bild points out the potential pitfalls of this strategy. Muller is one of the most popular players at the club, both among the squad and in the fanbase. He is a Bavarian native and a homegrown player, and enjoys popularity among the influential Sudkurve (ultras). Among advertisers, Muller is also the face of Bayern Munich and one of the club’s most marketable athletes.

In 1965, a success story started about 65 kilometres south-west of Madrid. A company by the name of JOMA was founded in Toledo, a small city with approximately 65,000 inhabitants, and at the time focused on the production of football boots. Thirty-three years later – during which the brand established itself as an equipment supplier – JOMA landed a coup and made an appearance on the biggest stage in the nearby capital city: the company signed the Spaniard Rafael Martín Vázquez, one of Real Madrid’s big stars. He was followed by club legend Emilio Butragueño a year later. The next quantum leap came a decade later: in 1998, JOMA’s campaign entitled “EL COLOR EN EL FÚTBOL” (English: “The Colour in Football”) made a splash worldwide and revolutionised the global football boot market. Brightly coloured boots were now everywhere; star striker Fernando Morientes, for example, attracted attention globally by donning red boots in the white kit of Real Madrid.