Loading ...Aug 02 2008
Bayern Moved for Gomez - Stuttgart
Mario Gómez looks like he has regained the form he temporarily lost at Euro 2008. What could have been the coming-out party for the young striker turned into a nightmare as he lost his starting spot in Joachim Löw’s Germany team after two tournament matches. He’s returned to his club and regained his form, but the opportunity to move to a big club will have to be rebuilt after the Stuttgart striker lost a lot of his value between Austria and Switzerland.
At was the thought on Gómez have the recently-turned 23-year-old showed so poorly at the European Championships, yet today VfB Stuttgart revealed Bayern Munich registered a bid for the striker which would have set a Bundesliga record, had it been accepted. Stuttgart elected to hold their leading scorer in spite of a €25 million bid from the league’s champions. That sounds like an incredible amount of money - a rate that only the top names in the market are getting - but when you consider Gómez’s value is unlikely to get any lower after what happened this summer, Stuttgart may be wise to hold.
Bayern plans to make another bid next year for the striker, at which time his value is likely to be higher. I suppose it’s possible Gómez’s value could continue to drop as he experiences a carry-over from Euro, but that seems incredibly unlikely given his body of work. Gómez was Germany’s best forward during the winter international friendlies that led up to Euro 2008, leading Joachim Löw to choose that now famous formation with Lukas Podolski on left wing. He scored 28 goals in 32 games for a Stuttgart team which played Champions League football after their league title in 2007. And lest anybody forget, he was chosen German Footballer of the Year after leading Stuttgart to that title, the club’s first in fifteen seasons.
In preseason action for Stuttgart, it’s clear Gómez has regained the burst in his step, a relief for any football fan who likes to see the elite of the world performing at their best. Gómez is not the best striker in the world, but amongst traditional, center strikers, he is at least part of a preliminary discussion. Once you start putting age-limits on the conversation, you remember how young Gómez is and how well he’s produced. He’s a bit older than Karim Benzema, a bit younger than Klass-Jan Huntelaar, creating a compelling spectrum on continental strikers. Extend the spectrum down to include Lionel Messi and Sergio Agüero and you have a pretty interesting essay (if also an opportunity to miss some names)
While Gómez’s resume is impressive, it is baffling that Bayern continue to pursue him and makes you wonder what their long term plans are for Luca Toni. Lukas Podolski is still one step short of wantaway status, but with his potential conversion to left-wing, is seems strange for Bayern to give up on him. Miroslav Klöse is giong nowhere as no team outside Germany will meet Bayern’s evaluation of him. Toni, however, seems destined to eventually return to Italy, and with AC Milan and AS Roma have potential needs for lead strikers into the immediate future, a sale of Toni to the Serie A after Bayern confirms Gómez next season is not a difficult scenario to imagine.
At that point, Bayern would have the German national team attack: Klöse and Gómez up top; Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger on the wings. While it would be the wet dream of München fans, I don’t see Michael Ballack completing the reunion that soon. Ballack aside, if Jürgen Klinsmann can make the talent work, it could be a Champions League-challenging side. Whether he can make it work while Joachim Löw could not is the question. I am not sure I would swap Gómez in for Toni to try.
Quotes
“We didn’t want any team’s money. We wanted to keep Germany’s player of the year.” - Horst Heldt, manager, Stuttgart
Links
Stuttgart spurns Bayern’s record offer for Gomez
WFP Related Posts
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