Transfer Rumours: A Chinese player for Wolfsburg?

Full name: Zhang Xizhe (张稀哲)
Date of birth: 23 January 1991 (age 23)
Place of birth: Wuhan, Hubei, China
Height: 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position: Attacking midfielder

Current team: Beijing Guoan
Number: 10

OFFICIAL: VfL Wolfsburg comes to agreement with Chinese Zhang Xizhe

BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- German Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg has come to an agreement with Chinese Super League team Beijing Guoan to sign Zhang Xizhe.

Zhang, 23, is expected to leave for Germany this weekend to ink the deal.

Zhang is voted 2012 Young Player of the Year. He will become the fourth Chinese player in the Bundesliga after Yang Chen, Shao Jiayi and Hao Junmin.



Wolfsburg - The Bundesliga is due to welcome its next foreign star in the coming days when VfL Wolfsburg announce the signing of Xizhe Zhang from Beijing Guoan.

The attacking midfielder, born in 1991, will be the tenth Chinese player in German professional football, but according to the man who spotted him - Wolfsburg's sporting director Klaus Allofs - he is unlikely to be the last.

Bundesliga breakthrough chance

"We've been monitoring the [Chinese] league and national team and there are quite a few interesting players there," Allofs told bundesliga.com. When the rest of the league catches a glimpse of the 2012 Chinese Football Association Young Player of the Year, they will likely want a taste for more.

"Chinese football is still developing, but I'm pretty certain there are plenty of good footballers there. It's something that is going to come on in the future. With Xizhe, we'll see how he adapts and settles in, then we will see what being a good player in China can translate to in the Bundesliga."

'Phenomenal player'

Zhang is not just a good player in China, he's an outstanding one, and it is indeed a real coup that Wolfsburg have, to all intents and purposes, managed to acquire his services. "He is a phenomenal player," said the chief executive of Scottish club Celtic FC Peter Lawwell in late 2013. "He left a profound impression on us. He's young and is very good both physically and technically. He's progressing all the time and showing improvement." Such an appraisal seems logical after watching a player that scored on his professional debut, as Zhang did in 2010.

That goal was followed by a total of 11 with 12 assists thrown in for good measure in the 2013 season, and all that in just 30 appearances. That year, he also debuted in the Chinese national team, scoring his first goal in September 2013 in a win against Singapore.

Unbounded potential

"He is a young player with a lot of potential," continued Allofs. "Even if the leap from China to the Bundesliga is a big one, we have every faith in him being able to manage it. Of course we are going to give him all the time he needs."

Outside China, Zhang may still be an unknown name, but that won't be the case for long: Wolfsburg have not only added a highly talented footballer to their ranks but also a potential trendsetter from a market set to explode in years to come.

Bundesliga: Wolfsburg signing Zhang Xizhe gains 50 million TV audience in China

A whopping 50 million viewers were expected to watch prime-time Chinese television when China star Zhang Xizhe gave his first press conference for new club Wolfsburg in Germany.

The 23-year-old attacking midfielder's transfer from Beijing Guoan to Bundesliga side Wolfsburg was completed on Tuesday morning with his first press conference screened live in China.

He has been given a contract until 2017 with Wolfsburg to pay Beijing Gouan a transfer sum of £595,000 (750,000 euros).

Such is the interest at home that China's state broadcaster CCTV was due to screen Zhang's first press conference live to make use of China's prime time viewing market.

"At the peak, between 40 to 50 million viewers are expected," said a Wolfsburg press spokesman.

Should Zhang successfully transfer his Chinese Super League form to the Bundesliga, Wolfsburg will have signed a bargain.

But the club said he will be given an extended period to adjust to the physicality of German football, the culture and the language.

"He is quick and can play in all the positions behind the strikers," said Wolfsburg's coach Dieter Hecking.

"But the boy speaks no English and he has to first of all find his feet with us and get used to the level of training."

EXPECTATION

Zhang arrived in Germany on Saturday and was in the crowd to watch his new team's 1-1 draw against Paderborn on Sunday which left them second in the Bundesliga behind Bayern Munich.

Wolfsburg are on course to play in the Champions League next season and the club's website was launched in Chinese on Monday.

Zhang has made 10 international appearances for China and scored his first of two international goals in a 6-1 thrashing of Singapore in September 2013.

He scored 24 goals in 115 appearances for Beijing Gouan in the Chinese Super League, with a further 29 assists.

China's Young Player of 2012 will become the only active Chinese player in the German league, but not the first.

He will follow in the footsteps of Hao Junmin, who made 14 league appearances for Schalke 04 in 2010 and 2011; Shao Jiayi, who joined 1860 Munich in 2003, then Energie Cottbus in 2006; and striker Yang Chen, who made 65 Bundesliga appearances for Eintracht Frankfurt up until 2001, scoring 16 goals.

Junior Malanda dead at 20: Wolfsburg youngster 'suffers fatal injuries in car accident'

Wolfsburg youngster Junior Malanda has died in a car accident, say reports in Germany.

According to BILD, the defensive midfielder was travelling in the back seat of an SUV when it was involved in a high-speed collision near Porta Westfalica in north-central Germany.

The car reportedly cleared a guardrail on the side of the road and crashed into a tree. The 20-year-old is believed to have died immediately.

Malanda was a promising young midfielder who had represented Belgium through numerous age groups. He appeared in ten Bundesliga games for Wolfsburg this term. His past clubs include Zuite-Waregem and Lille.

According to BILD, he was scheduled to catch a flight to a training camp later on Saturday evening.



http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/new...lfsburg-4956112


R.I.P Junior Malanda

WORLD COACH OF THE YEAR FOR WOMEN'S FOOTBALL
RALF KELLERMANN

"I'd like to say thank you to a great many people. Unfortunately I have picked up an individual award for a team sport. In light of the tragedy of Junior Malanda, who was so sadly taken from us, you can understand I will not make a long speech."



http://www.fifa.com/ballon-dor/index.html

Deal Agreed: Chelsea's André Schürrle off to Wolfburg

Wolfsburg have agreed personal terms with Chelsea forward Andre Schurrle and a transfer is imminent, according to German magazine Kicker.

The clubs are close to finalising his transfer fee, Kicker reported, with Wolfsburg offering 27 millions euros and Chelsea asking for about 30 million.

Bild reported that Schurrle's deal, worth about 6 million per season, will tie him to the Bundesliga club until 2019.

Schurrle, 24, has been linked with a return to the Bundesliga in recent weeks, with speculation building ever since Jose Mourinho said on Friday that the Blues could be persuaded to cash in on the World Cup winner if they received "a phenomenal offer."

Schurrle has three goals in 14 Premier League apperances but has only started five times. He saw more action in cups and the Champions League, but with Chelsea almost certain to acquire Fiorentina winger Juan Cuadrado this week, Schurrle has become surplus to Chelsea's needs.

If the move for Schurrle goes through as expected, Wolfburg will sell Ivica Olic to Hamburg after initially rejecting the forward's request for a transfer.