Lucas Podolski returns to his roots… Poland-born striker made his first football steps in FC Köln in 1995 and now it seems he is going back to Cologne, signing a €7.5 million deal with the club that will come through in the summer. At the age of 18 and still a youth player he became a major link for his side and made a sudden impact on the football world. Deemed to become the leading star for Bundes Liga giants Bayern Munich, Podolski signed a deal in June 2006. And now only three years after, instead of shooting at the stars, the boy is coming back to where he started. Has he made the wrong decision…?
The 23-year-old striker has taken a frustrated part this season on the fringes of Bayern Munich side and unsettled German international is willing to improve his career by moving along. Bayern boss, Klinsmann, persists with an attacking partnership of Miroslav Close and Luca Toni this season not leaving enough room for Prince Poldi to show his real worth. Podolski is now in a very delicate age when he needs to be played on a regular bases in order to aid his football development and no wonder he has decided to change the surroundings.
There is one question though and that is whether he has made a wrong decision by choosing to play for one of the perennial underachievers in Bundes Liga such as FC Köln who are currently sitting on the 11th place on the standings. Lucas had already done wonders for this minnow club, keeping his team in the top-tier almost singlehandedly in 2004-05 season when he scored a tally of 24 goals and became the league’s top-scorer. Cologne are genuinely happy to retain the services of this somewhat talismanic player for their club.
The youngster has made his peace with leaving Bayern and hopes to become the leading player at Cologne where he will become the one who will take on the responsibility when needed. That might be the main reason why Italian side Roma have fallen out of race for the prolific striker who had earlier stated his desire to line up alongside Giallorossi legendary captain Francesco Totti. I just can’t believe that Roma who were seriously considering a bid for German international, have lost a battle to minnows such as FC Köln and that the player who is supposed to become one of the leading stars in football world and for his national team has chosen a mid-table team over the prospect of playing alongside De Rossi, Totti and others, even maybe in the Champions League. Maybe he got scared of the possibility of the prospect, which will speak a lot of his mentality as it seems good enough for a small club anyway…
It seems that the boy seen to make a bright future will only be seen as a big fish in a small pond, nothing more…
Roma have their Prince, Köln are getting their back…
Popularity: 11% [?]
What a silly article. Why would you write about football as some sort of expert if a) you can’t spell and b) you know nothing of what you write about?
Poldi chose Koln, one of the biggest clubs in all of Germany (recent struggles aside), because it’s the club he grew up supporting, it’s the club that he played and starred with, and he wants to go back home to play for his team. He’s not afraid of playing for big clubs, if he was afraid he wouldn’t have stayed at Bayern for 3 years, which is far bigger a club than Roma is.
Some players aren’t obsessed with being in the Champions League every year or moving abroad to some club that a grammatically challenged guy with a blog thinks is better for them. Some follow their heart to the place where they know they will get to play, enjoy their football, and receive support. Poldi would be one of them.
For the record, you made most of the article up. Roma were rarely mentioned in connection with Podolski, the leading clubs were Hamburg, Koln and Bremen because he wanted to stay in Germany. And it’s Klose, not “Miroslav Close”.