Hit or Miss? How every British player in the Bundesliga fared in 2019/20
After an exciting 10 months of action, the 2019/20 Bundesliga season is finally over, with Bayern Munich wrapping up an eighth consecutive league title.
Hans-Dieter Flick’s side finished 13 points clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund but the race was closer than the difference showed. RB Leipzig and Borussia Monchengladbach completed the top four, joining Bayern and Dortmund in next season’s Champions League.
The Europa League spots were claimed by Bayer Leverkusen, Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg while Paderborn and Fortuna Dusseldorf were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga – with Werder Bremen entering the relegation play-offs after a 6-1 win on the final day saved them from the automatic drop.
All that action on its own was enough to draw eyes to German football, but if that wasn’t enough, there was a solid British presence in the Bundesliga – with 10 players featuring, three more than the previous campaign.
At the start of the campaign we looked at eight of those players – with one joining in January and another handed a late call-up – and predicted how they would get on. So, who were these exports, how did they perform, and were our initial predictions anywhere near the mark? Read on to find out.
Jadon Sancho
Club: Borussia Dortmund
Nationality: English
Age: 20
Position :Winger
Bundesliga appearances: 32
The cream of Britain’s crop in the Bundesliga, expectations were high for Jadon Sancho to continue his rise in the 2019/20 campaign and boy, did he deliver.
In 32 Bundesliga appearances across the campaign, Sancho was directly involved in 33 goals – scoring 17 and recording 16 assists – with only Robert Lewandowski (38) and Timo Werner (36) being involved in more.
The Englishman, who turned 20 over the course of the campaign, is also one of just two players to score 15+ goals and record 15+ assists in one of Europe’s top five leagues alongside an Argentinian called Lionel Messi.
Sancho was unable to help Dortmund dethrone Bayern but the Englishman had an individual campaign to remember, which could see him on his way back to England amid reports of a Premier League move.
Jadon Sancho's 2019-20 Bundesliga season by numbers:
77 take-ons completed
69 chances created
19 big chances created
17 goals
16 assistsAnd countless records broken. 💥 pic.twitter.com/YP5JxqpMhM
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) June 27, 2020
Our initial prediction: Hit
Verdict: Hit
Keanan Bennetts
Club: Borussia Monchengladbach
Nationality: English
Age: 21
Position: Winger
Bundesliga appearances: 1
Keanan Bennetts made the move from Tottenham Hotspur to Borussia Monchengladbach in July 2018 but spent his first campaign in Germany with the club’s second team – making 22 appearances and earning a spot on the 2019 Golden Boy shortlist.
The 2019/20 season had early signs of being Bennetts’ breakthrough year as he was named on the Monchengladbach for their opening game of the season but that would be one of just three appearances on the bench in the Bundesliga.
Given Monchengladbach’s strength in attack with the likes of Alassane Plea, Marcus Thuram and Breel Embolo it’s understandable that the winger was unable to break into the squad, but the Bennetts will certainly be frustrated that he couldn’t achieve more than his one minute of action towards the end of the season – making his first-team debut.
Our initial prediction: Miss
Verdict: Miss
Ethan Ampadu
Club: RB Leipzig
Nationality: Welsh
Age: 19
Position: Centre-back
Bundesliga appearances: 3
Ethan Ampadu embarked on his first loan spell away from Chelsea in the 2019/20 campaign, joining RB Leipzig for the season having stalled during Maurizio Sarri’s tenure at Stamford Bridge.
There were high hopes for the Welshman, who is capable of playing in both defence and midfield, but things just haven’t quite worked out. Ampadu has struggled for fitness this season, unable to find a frequent spot in Julian Nagelsmann’s starting side – making just three substitute appearances in the league despite being on the bench 20 times in total.
He did perform slightly better in the Champions League, starting twice including as a centre-back at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as RB Leipzig came away with a 1-0 win – with Ampadu praised for his performance. But that aside, Ampadu’s season will perhaps unfairly be remembered for a haircut, having got rid of his highly-recognisable dreadlocks – although the Welshman has no regrets about his choice to join Leipzig.
“Of course I’d have liked to have stayed with Chelsea, but for this season it was the best decision for me and I stick by that,” he told The Athletic in April. “I don’t regret coming out here and having these experiences.”
Our initial prediction: Hit
Verdict: Miss
Ademola Lookman
Club: RB Leipzig
Nationality: English
Age: 22
Position: Winger
Bundesliga appearances: 11
Another British export in Leipzig, the 2019/20 campaign was Ademola Lookman’s first as a permanent Red Bull player after a successful loan spell from Everton in 2017/18.
However, the arrival of Nagelsmann as manager and his favoured formations – either a 3-5-2 or flatter 4-4-2, meant there has been little room for Lookman in the Leipzig team this season. The Englishman started just one of his 11 Bundesliga appearances and was linked with a loan return to the Premier League in January, though no move materialised.
Our initial prediction: Miss
Verdict: Miss
Jonjoe Kenny
Club: Schalke
Nationality: English
Age: 23
Position: Right-back
Bundesliga appearances: 31
Another temporary move, Jonjoe Kenny joined Schalke on loan from Everton for the season and was a big part of David Wagner’s side.
The full-back started all 31 of his Bundesliga appearances across the campaign, either as a standard right-back or wing-back on occasions, and looked to be part of Schalke’s side earning European football.
However, Schalke faltered in the second half of the campaign, winning just once in the league between the start of January and the end of the season – and that came in their first game back after Christmas. But Kenny did enough to show his promise, being nominated for Rookie of the Season, ahead of either breaking into Everton’s first-team or earning a move away.
Our initial prediction: Hit
Verdict: Hit
Rabbi Matondo
Club: Schalke
Nationality: Welsh
Age: 19
Position: Winger
Bundesliga appearances: 20
Joining Kenny at Schalke was Rabbi Matondo, who made the permanent move from Manchester City in January 2019 and made eight first-team appearances before the end of the season.
Matondo missed the start of the 2019/20 campaign through injury but returned to made an impact on his first start, scoring in Schalke’s 3-1 win over RB Leipzig. However, that would be as good as it got for the Welsh winger, who managed to add just one more goal in his following 19 league appearances.
Matondo did not have a bad campaign by any stretch of the imagination, growing both on and off the pitch, but the Welshman may not fully receive the benefits until next season – and he is currently being linked with a move to Manchester United as an alternative to Sancho.
Our initial prediction: Hit
Verdict: Hit
Reece Oxford
Club: Augsburg
Nationality: English
Age: 21
Position: Centre-back
Bundesliga appearances: 12
Having spent the first half of 2019 on loan with Augsburg, Reece Oxford made the move permanent in the summer in order to continue his development in Germany.
After a tough start, the 2019/20 campaign was meant to be Oxford’s time to prove himself in Germany and show West Ham United what they were missing. But that wasn’t the case.
The Englishman made just 12 Bundesliga appearances for Augsburg, with only two starts, amassing a total of 367 minutes and being on the winning side three times.
Our initial prediction: Miss
Verdict: Miss
Lewis Baker
Club: Fortuna Dusseldorf
Nationality: English
Age: 25
Position: Central midfield
Bundesliga appearances: 8
Lewis Baker has not enjoyed great success in recent seasons, struggling for playing time at Middlesbrough and Leeds United before a brief reprieve with Reading towards the end the 2018/19 campaign.
His loan move to Fortuna Dusseldorf was potentially his final chance to direct his career towards an upwards trajectory, no longer an exciting youth prospect, but it followed the same vein as his spells at Boro and Leeds.
The Englishman made just eight appearances for Fortuna and saw his loan spell terminated in January amid claims from the German side’s manager Friedhelm Funkeln that he had gone AWOL.
“He is in London and supposedly sick, I can’t check that,” he said. “Usually he would have been here. I don’t know what the reason is that he wasn’t here.
“What I know is that Lewis Baker wasn’t in the squad against Union Berlin and should have trained with the others at ten in the morning.
“But he just wasn’t there during this training session. There was no excuse in advance. When he wasn’t playing, he wasn’t even in the stadium. All other players who are not part of the squad were there and were happy with the others.”
Our initial prediction: Hit
Verdict: Miss
Antony Evans
Club: Paderborn
Nationality: English
Age: 21
Position :Attacking midfielder
Bundesliga appearances: 6
A January arrival on a permanent deal from Everton, Antony Evans joined Bundesliga strugglers Paderborn but was unable to make any real difference as the club were relegated.
The 21-year-old made just six appearances for Paderborn before the end of the campaign and did not taste victory, drawing two and losing four.
Our initial prediction: N/A
Verdict: Miss
Jamal Musiala
Club: Bayern Munich
Nationality: English
Age: 17
Position :Attacking midfielder
Bundesliga appearances: 1
One of the most under the radar moves from England to the Bundesliga last summer, highly-rated Jamal Musiala left Chelsea’s academy after eight years to join the youth set up at Bayern Munich.
Musialia is still a member of the Bayern academy, and will be for the foreseeable future, but the teenager – who has been capped at youth level for both Germany and England – made his first-team debut as a substitute as Bayern beat Freiburg 3-1 in the penultimate game of the season. It was just a cameo appearance, lasting two minutes, but it was a big moment for the Englishman who became Bayern’s youngest-ever Bundesliga player.
Our initial prediction: N/A
Verdict: Hit
READ MORE ON THE BUNDESLIGA:
Bundesliga 2019/20 top scorers list
Bundesliga 2019/20 most assists table
Tips and predictions
How to live stream Bundesliga games online
