By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Bundesliga kicks off its 62nd season on Friday evening with the season opener between Borussia Mönchengladbach and historic double winners Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
Leverkusen have already followed up last season’s unprecedented invincible domestic double by winning the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart, adding their third trophy under Xabi Alonso.
The match saw new signings and exhilarating football on display – something that Mönchengladbach and former Leverkusen head coach Gerardo Seoane will be tasked with stopping when they host the champions to kick off the Bundesliga season on Friday night.
Saturday sees three teams hoping to catch up, including Stuttgart themselves. Last season’s runners-up take on SC Freiburg under Julian Schuster, their first new coach in 13 years after Christian Streich’s departure.
RB Leipzig, last season’s fourth-placed side, are also planning to make inroads. A hugely positive summer has seen them retain Xavi Simons and Benjamin Šeško, while new signing Antonio Nusa has already scored on his debut. VfL Bochum 1848 will be travelling to the Red Bull Arena for that clash as they look to put the drama of play-off survival behind them under new boss Peter Zeidler.
Their Ruhr neighbours kick off later in the day, as Nuri Şahin’s new-look Dortmund host a similarly busy Eintracht Frankfurt in a mouthwatering clash. BVB have lost legends Marco Reus and Mats Hummels, but have been straight to work landing Serhou Guirassy and Waldemar Anton from Stuttgart, Pascal Groß from Brighton & Hove Albion, Maximilian Beier from TSG Hoffenheim and Yan Couto from Manchester City. Frankfurt, meanwhile, have 2023/24 Bundesliga 2 star Can Uzun among their ranks, as well as Oscar Højlund and now permanent signing Hugo Ekitiké, who will be looking to cause a surprise at the Signal Iduna Park.
There’s plenty more drama to come elsewhere on Saturday too, with newly promoted Kiel set to play the first Bundesliga match in their 123-year history as they travel to Hoffenheim for a tricky task given the Sinsheim club’s impressive seventh-place finish last season.
FC Augsburg had a similarly eye-catching campaign last term, too, but having lost their last five games, they were leapfrogged by Ole Werner’s resurgent SV Werder Bremen, meaning this could well set the tone for two teams again looking to move up from the bottom half of the table.
Two clubs who would have loved bottom-half comforts last season, 1. FSV Mainz 05 and 1. FC Union Berlin, also go head-to-head in an early pace-setting match. The pair scrapped it out for Bundesliga survival just a few months ago and both narrowly made it out alive. The architect of the 05ers’ incredible survival push, Bo Henriksen, is ready for his first full season, while Union will present to them a familiar face in their dugout in one-time Mainz saviour Bo Svensson.
Sunday sees the return of a wounded giant. Can record champions Bayern get back on track under new coach Vincent Kompany after seeing their 11-year title streak ended last season? They begin their new era away at VfL Wolfsburg, who have had a full summer of Ralph Hasenhüttl at the helm as they look to roar back up the table.
Finishing off the weekend, all eyes will be in Hamburg for the return of Germany’s cult club, St. Pauli. Promoted last season as champions after 12 years in the second tier, they face the tough task of last term’s surprise package, 1. FC Heidenheim 1846. Europe’s longest-serving coach, 17-year veteran Frank Schmidt, has lost a number of stars, but after finishing pre-season with an aggregate score of 45-3, Pauli will have to watch out.