News and gossip from around the Bundesliga

Kicker magazine, renowned for their parsimony when handing out their grades for players’ performances, are obviously enamoured with the national teams display against the Czechs. Using a scale of 1-6 (where 1 is the best), Per Mertesacker scores a 1, Kevin Kuranyi 1.5 and Michael Ballack, Thorsten Frings and Marcell Jansen all rated a 2…

With Borussia Mönchengladbach looking ever more likely to go down, Marcell Jansen has declared himself unwilling to play in the 2. Bundesliga and is already in negotiations to move to Bayern München at the end of the season. However, with Philip Lahm already settled at left back for the current champions, it is unclear which position he would fill…

Bayern München ‘keeper Oliver Kahn has been suspended for one Champions League game and fined around € 12.000 for his expletive laden tirade against a UEFA official after their victory over Real Madrid. Apparently, it took Kahn over two hours to provide the official in question with a urine sample after the game after he had been randomly selected for the usual doping tests. However, the official demanded a second sample after claiming not have seen Kahn provide the first one. This set the notoriously volatile player off. Bayern are appealing against the suspension, having already lost Mark van Bommel through suspension for that game as well…

The list of suitors for VfL Bochum’s Greek striker Theofanis Gekas is growing. Gekas, currently leading the Bundesliga with 13 goals, has a clause in his contract allowing him to leave for €1million. If Bochum escape relegation, expect them to exercise an option increasing the length of his contract to 2010. If not, he could move to any one of Leverkusen, Dortmund, Wolfsburg, Stuttgart or Hannover…