Premier League trio Aston Villa, West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur will miss out on Matthias Ginter with Fabrizio Romano claiming that the Germany international will join SC Freiburg instead.
Few would have imagined that a team who finished in the bottom half of the Bundesliga last term would be better placed to secure Champions League football with just a couple of weeks remaining than Antonio Conte’s Spurs or David Moyes’ overachieving West Ham.
There are certainly similarities between Freiburg and West Ham’s remarkable rise from relegation favourites to top-four chasers.
A tight-knit squad inspired by a veteran tactician. One proving that bucketloads of cash is no substitute for consistency, togetherness and old-school organisation.
Freiburg have only ever graced the European stage on four occasions – and only twice in the last 20 years – but are sitting pretty in fourth with just two games remaining, one point ahead of an expensively-assembled, Christopher Nkunku-inspired RB Leipzig side.
Now, Freiburg have already lost one of their star players to top-flight rivals Borussia Dortmund. Nico Schlotterbeck confirmed his summer switch to the Signal Iduna Park over the weekend. But it is understood that the German international will be replaced by another of the division’s premiere central defenders.
Schlotterbeck out, Ginter in
According to Fabrizio Romano, 2014 World Cup winner Ginter will join Freiburg on a free. His Borussia Monchengladbach contract expires in July.
When you consider that Ginter has been linked with Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus Inter Milan and others, it’s safe to assume no one saw this coming.
Then again, Freiburg have made a habit out of confounding expectations.
Sky reported in April that Aston Villa are also keen on Ginter. So too West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur.
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The Premier League trio must look elsewhere now. But be warned; top class centre-halves like Ginter are not available for free all that often.
Interestingly, the 28-year-old started his career at Freiburg. When Ginter left for Dortmund in the summer of 2014, not even the most optimistic of Billy Goats supporters would have dared to dream of Champions League football.
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