Sports Weekly all-media reporter Huang Sijun
The day after the official announcement of Nico Schlotterbeck's move to Borussia Dortmund this summer, Freiburg announced that its academy player Güntel would return on free from Borussia Monchengladbach. In accordance with Freiburg practice, the details of the contract were not disclosed. Born in Freiburg, Ginter joined his hometown club in 2005 and played until the 2014 World Cup, when he moved to Borussia Dortmund. Günter, who will be back in the Freiburg 28 shirt, said: "I want to do something special in my career and nothing more special than returning to Freiburg and my hometown. ”
After 8 years, Günter will be re-dressed in freiburg 28.
Country clubs? Freiburg is rich!
Ginter preempted Borussia Möncheng after Christmas last year, announcing through social media that he would not renew his contract, leaving Prussia Park at the latest after the season. Borussia Moncheng tried to sell him away in the winter window to avoid a double fortune, but was unsuccessful. Since then, Ginter, who has been in poor form this season, has been a little more embarrassed. His bench at a friendly match against Israel and the Netherlands during the international week in March epitomized the club's awkward situation.
Where Will Ginter's next stop has been rumored over the past few months, with the inter milan and Aston Villa versions being the most credible, as well as the names of Barcelona, Juventus and Roma. As for Bayern, it is widely believed that Gentel is nothing more than "Plan B" or even "Plan C", and the possibility of the two sides holding hands is very small.
Before leaving Freiburg in the summer of 2014, Günter became a world champion at just 20 years old.
During this time, there were actually rumors that Günther was considering returning to Freiburg, but most people did not agree. In an interview with Sport1 in mid-April, Kintel even publicly responded to the rumor, "Freiburg is my hometown, and this idea (returning to Freiburg) has always been in my mind." But the question is to what extent it is possible to actually put it into action. Theoretically, we agreed that the option of Freiburg as the center of gravity was included in my life plan at the end of my career in any case. As for whether we will go back on competitive grounds before then, let's walk and see. ”
Looking back now, It's clear that Genter listed home this summer as an important option early on. Even two years ago, he had publicly talked about the possibility of re-playing for Freiburg and said he was a "football romantic". Just the question is: Does the "country club" in Freiburg dare to think? Do they have conditions? In other words, 5 years ago, the answer was obviously no, after all, their primary goal every season is relegation. Even if there is "spare money", they would rather spend it on youth training than acquire famous stars.
In 2017, Günter won the German Cup with Borussia Dortmund.
However, in the summer window two years ago, Freiburg took an unprecedented step in the construction of the professional team: for 10 million euros to bring in French midfielder Santa Maria from Ligue 1 Angers! This is the first time Freiburg has invested in 8 figures in a player. Ahead of the summer window, Freiburg also spent $7 million to buy back The Italian fringe international Griffo from Hoffenheim (sold it to Borussia Möncheng in the summer of 2017 for $6 million). In the summer of 2018, freiburg also proudly signed Waldschmidt, Roland Sauloy, Heinz, Linhart, Gondorf and Fryken, spending more than 16 million in total, as a result of the sale of Turkish centre-back Seinju, freiburg also proudly signed Waldschmidt, Roland Sauloy, Heinz, Linhart, Gondorf and Fryken.
It is not difficult to see that Freiburg has become more and more daring to spend money on reinforcements in recent years. And this boldness and confidence stems from the club's financial situation continues to improve - of which the sale of key players is the most important source of income. In particular, in the summer window of 2020, the transfer of Valschmidt (15 million sold to Benfica), Robin Koch (13 million sold to Leeds United) and Schwarlow (7 million sold to Hertha Berlin) all at once brought a whopping 35 million in revenue! Because of this, Freiburg, under the dual attack of the new crown epidemic and the construction of a new home, still achieved a turnover of 100 million euros in the previous financial year (2020/21 season) - reaching 111.01 million, and the profit reached 9.8 million (only 100,000 in the previous fiscal year), and the club's own capital increased to 93 million.
In the summer of 2017, Günter also won the Confederations Cup.
Isn't the club's own earnings report convincing enough? In late October last year, the chairman of the Augsburg board of directors, Klaus Hoffmann, said that perhaps he could give the outside world a more intuitive understanding of the "healthy" financial situation in Freiburg today. Hoffman proudly stated at the time that Augsburg had 53 million euros of its own capital and that "our own capital base (during the pandemic) has not wavered." Apart from Bayern and Freiburg, no other (Bundesliga) club would dare to say so. "Yes, Freiburg can even be compared to Bayern!
Therefore, when Freiburg decided to sell Niko Schlotterbeek to Dortmund for 20 million euros (plus 5 million floats), they naturally had sufficient financial conditions and dared to sign back the free agent Güinter. Günther's annual salary at Borussia Möncheng is believed to be only around 3.6 million euros (Borussia Möncheng's offer at the end of last year did not raise salaries), and even a slight increase is now affordable for Freiburg. And as early as 4 years ago, the "football romantic" publicly said that the income of professional football players is too high, so there is a gap between amateur players and fans, and he even calls for a salary cap. So when Bild took the lead in revealing on Monday that Günter would return to Freiburg to replace fellow disciple Schroderbeck, the outside world was surprised and soon felt that this was completely reasonable.
Flick also advised him to go home
Ginter has previously said that his non-renewal of his contract with Borussia Moncheng is the result of a combination of factors, "The offer at the end of last year (Möncheng) has nothing to do with my decision. Before that, I had made decisions early in the morning for various reasons. Now that he has decided to return to Freiburg, he has also taken into account a series of factors such as competition, economy and family. He can not only return to his hometown with his family, but also re-fight with old teammates such as Gunter, Heffler, and Schmid, and can also return to the arms of his mentor Streishi. Sport1 also revealed that Gentel did not choose to go abroad also because he wanted to make a decision as soon as possible. If he wants to move to Inter Milan or Villa, he will have to wait until the end of May or even June, and he does not want to wait any longer.
In the new season, Günter will renew the frontier with his mentor Streishi.
After signing, Ginter said: "The development of the whole club, the potential of the team and the special way of communicating with the club's leaders over the past few weeks – it is a great blessing to find all of this in my hometown today. This whole package perfectly meets my requirements. Sporting director Hattenbach noted that the link between Freiburg and Günter has never been broken, and the club is well aware of his competitive prowess, "but we will seek to work with him with health and practical expectations." ”
It has to be said that Ginter's competitive strength and personality traits – especially the down-to-earth point – are simply the epitome of freiburg as a club at this stage. However, there is a slight difference between the two: Ginter's personal development has suffered a bottleneck, while Freiburg is in a period of rapid upward movement unprecedented in team history. Can the two be synchronized after they are reunited?
Ginter has been in a competitive slump with Borussia Moncheng this season and needs to reverse the downturn through transfers to re-enhance his competitiveness in the national team ahead of the World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year. An embarrassing fact is that although Ginter became a world champion at the age of 20, was also selected for the 23-man roster of the last World Cup, as well as titles such as the silver medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the 2017 Confederations Cup, he has not made any appearances in the World Cup so far. Sport1 revealed that German coach Flick also suggested that Ginter return to his hometown club.
Freiburg currently has two active German internationals, Gentel (left) and Niko Schlotterbeck.
Don't forget that Germany's assistant coach Marcus Zorg is from Freiburg (Straussch replaced him as freiburg professional team manager), and the new goalkeeping coach Kronenberg is also from Freiburg – he is still working as a goalkeeper coach in Freiburg and will only serve Germany full-time after this season. Coupled with the fact that Flick's predecessor Loew lived in Freiburg and was the second-best scorer in the team's history, the small club has been an indispensable element of the German team for many years, so playing for Freiburg is by no means a disadvantage for the German team - captain Gunter and rising star Niko Slottbeck are now Friedke's standing players.
Freiburg sent an important signal
Freiburg is now thriving under Straussch, who has been in charge for more than 10 years, and this season first left the Dreisam Stadium, which does not meet UEFA standards, moved into the Europa Park stadium, which can accommodate 34,700 people, and then reached the Final of the German Cup for the first time, and is currently 4th in the Bundesliga table with only two rounds left in the season (leaving Güntel's current owner Mönchen to play 14 points, and also washed Prussia Park 6-0 in the first round), A historic chance to qualify for the Champions League (participation in Europe next season is a foregone conclusion).
Last season, Günther represented Borussia Moncheng in the Champions League against Real Madrid, can he represent Freiburg in the Champions League next season?
Whether it's looking at the development of the club or the prospects of the national team, Ginter is perfectly suitable to go home at this time, and returning from Borussia Monchengung to Freiburg is definitely not a downward choice. For Freiburg, Günter, with 290 Bundesliga games, 21 Champions League games and 46 national team matches, is also a dream plan to replace Niko Sloterbeek, and it is really impossible to think of a better candidate. The premise, of course, is that Ginter is going to get out of the competitive trough of the season immediately.
On the other hand, signing Günter is also an important signal from Freiburg to the outside world: after such a successful season, they are well positioned to avoid other main players besides Nico Slottbeck (such as the 28-year-old Dutch international Flecken and the 25-year-old Austrian centre-back Linhart) and immediately find another way, without having to sell blood to maintain the healthy functioning of the club, and even further strengthen the squad, especially if they do qualify for the Champions League.
Günter's Bundesliga debut and debut was the beginning of Freiburg's "Golden Decade" under Straussch.
On 21 January 10 years ago, Streicht replaced Günter in the 70th minute of his debut in charge of the Freiburg pro team. Just 18 minutes later, the 18th birthday elite of the academy picked up a free kick from Lum and flicked his head in the edge of the penalty area to help Freiburg, who was at the bottom of the pre-match rankings, beat relegation rival Augsburg 1-0 at home. Günther's debut and debut kick opened the curtain on the successful "Streishi era". Now that Günter has experienced the adventures of Dortmund and Borussia Moncheng, will it be a sign of Freiburg's entry into the next "Golden Decade"? What will be the development and ending of this "football romance story"? Let's wait and see.