20 years of market values at TM
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In the 2006/07 season, VfB Stuttgart dethroned FC Bayern and won the fifth championship in the club’s history ahead of FC Schalke and Werder Bremen (see table). The relegated teams were Gladbach, Aachen and Mainz, the top scorer was Theofanis Gekas from VfL Bochum and the Munich team ended up in fourth place outside the Champions League ranks. On the 20th anniversary of market values, Transfermarkt looks at the most valuable players this season. After Michael Ballack‘s departure to London, Miroslav Klose was the last time a Bremen player was at the helm.
Werder attacker Klose started the season as top scorer at the 2006 World Cup after five goals and subsequently had a market value of 30 million euros. After 13 goals and 15 assists, he moved to FC Bayern in the summer of 2007 for 15 million euros. The reason Klose didn’t cost more was because he was in the last twelve months of his Werder contract at the time.
With the outstanding Diego, who was involved in 27 goals, and Torsten Frings, two more Bremen players were in the most valuable eleven, which was formed by six Munich players. Like last year, Lúcio, Philipp Lahm, Daniel Van Buyten and Willy Sagnol were there, plus newcomers Owen Hargreaves and Lukas Podolski.
Despite the title, there was no place for a VfB professional in this selection. The most valuable Swabians in coach Armin Veh’s championship squad were Fernando Meira (10 million), Jon Dahl Tomasson (8 million) and Timo Hildebrand (7.5 million). Thanks to an outstanding final spurt, the Stuttgart team won the trophy with eight wins in a row – the necessary goals were provided by the then 20-year-old Mario Gómez (8 million) and Cacau (5.5 million), who together collected 38 scorer points.
The second most valuable player in the league, Rafael van der Vaart, was in the ranks of Hamburger SV and had a market value of 21 million euros. In his second HSV season, the Dutchman was involved in 18 goals in 35 games and confirmed his market value. In goal, Hannover’s Robert Enke (8 million) displaced his then national team colleague Hildebrand. With a total value of 184 million euros, the most valuable team of the 2006/07 Bundesliga season is just about more valuable than today’s Real stars Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham.
