By Sportingintelligence
22 November 2011
Borussia Dortmund’s manager Juergen Klopp has dismissed stories that his brilliant 19-year-old German international attacking midfielder Mario Goetze could be on his way to Arsenal for £30m in January as ‘a media issue’.
In an interview with the Sport1 website in his native country, Klopp said: “No one just buys off a Dortmund player.”
The full article is linked here and includes quotes from the player’s agent saying he has not had ‘official’ offers yet for the player. A story from the Mail online today set out Arsene Wenger’s position – open minded.
Goetze has been described as one of the best talents Germany has produced and has been at Dortmund – renowned in recent years for rearing talent – since 2001.
Goetze was also rated as one of the best 15 footballers last season across all teams in Europe’s ‘Big Five’ leagues. Lionel Messi of Barcelona was No1, and Goetze was No13, just behind Bayern Munich’s Franck Ribery. Bayern are also interested in the player.
The full rankings of last season’s best players was compiled in association with the Football Observatory and CIES in Switzerland in conjunction with Opta, and can be found in the Annual Review of the European Football Players’ Labour Market, available to buy now (link here, where a free extract can also be downloaded).
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