SEVERAL Scottish footballers have graced the Bundesliga since Vincent Mennie, the Dortmund-born midfielder who spent just shy of three seasons at Cologne, became the first to do so back in 1983.
Mark McGhee (Hamburg), Scott Booth, Paul Lambert and Murdo MacLeod (all Borussia Dortmund), Alan McInally (Bayern Munich), Brian O’Neill (Wolfsburg), Oliver Burke (RB Leipzig and Werder Bremen) and Fraser Hornby (Darmstadt 98) have all featured in the German top flight.
Still, it is something of a rarity for a tartan export to play a league which is renowned, respected and revered around the globe.
Could former Dundee United youth Scott Banks become the latest Scot to distinguish himself in the Bundesliga in the 2024/25 season? Watch this space. He is set to turn out for promoted St Pauli and much is expected of him.
Banks, who was farmed out to Clyde when he was a kid at United and who had temporary stints with Alloa Athletic and Dunfermline Athletic after he signed for Crystal Place four years ago, hardly featured during a loan spell with the world-famous Hamburg outfit last term.
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He suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury after just a handful of appearances and was sidelined for eight-and-a-half months as a consequence. But he returned to action in their final game against Wehen-Wiesbaden away in May and set up a late goal which ultimately clinched the second tier title within minutes of taking to the field.
It is fair to say St Pauli were impressed. They signed the 22-year-old permanently for €400,000 at the start of last month. There are high hopes for the Linlithgow-born winger at the Millerntor Stadium ahead of their first Bundesliga game in 13 years against Heidenheim at home tomorrow afternoon.
“Scott will 100 per cent be a part of things,” said Rupert Fabig, the St Pauli reporter for the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper. “He made a positive impact last season when he was on loan from Crystal Palace before tearing his ACL.
“The club, instead of letting the loan run out and never seeing the guy again, asked him stay in Hamburg to do his rehab. And this summer they went out and bought him because they really believe in him, really like him. I think it says a lot about how much they like him that they were prepared to buy him after so few games.
He continued: “He is a winger and wingers were very important in the 3-4-3 system which the former manager Fabian Hurzeler (who joined Brighton back in June) used last season. But now that Alexander Blessin has taken over they use a 3-5-2 formation and they don’t really have wingers.
“The wingers are struggling to get into the starting line-up. But Blessin wants to be flexible, wants his side to be able to adapt and change to 3-4-3 during games also. So I think Scott will come off the bench, in the opening games at least.
“I can say nothing bad about him at all. He is a nice guy, a fun guy, a very open guy, off the pitch. On the pitch he has always made an impression whenever he has played. The St Pauli fans certainly like him a lot. Of course, after Euro 2024, every German likes Scots just now.”
The six figure fee which it took the 2. Bundesliga champions to secure Banks’ services on a permanent contract is small beer by German standards – as is their total €1.7m outlay on new players this summer.
To put that figure into context, defending champions Bayer Leverkusen have spent €53m, Bayern Munich €142m, Borussia Dortmund €80m, RB Leipzig €41m, Stuttgart €64m and Wolfsburg €30m.
St Pauli, who have an association with Celtic which dates back to the 1990s, are better known for their colourful fan culture, their left wing political leanings, their social conscience and their punk ethos than for their sporting accomplishments. Their stays in the elite division have often been fleeting in the past.
That, though, was then and this is now. Fabig explains that an increased focus on commercialism and a shrewd recruitment policy underpinned their success last term. He is quietly confident they can hold their own in the Bundesliga this time around and avoid relegation.
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“There is definitely optimism along with great excitement among the fans,” he said. “Last time they got up they only spent a season in the top flight. They dropped back down right away. But things have changed a lot since then.
“A new president, Oke Gottlich, took over back in 2014 and he changed their approach a little bit. In the 104 years they had been in existence before that, they had only made €3m from the sale of players. In the last 10 years they have made €30m from the sale of players.
“They are concentrating much more on revenue than they did before. They are really good at marketing now. They are much more than a football club. Politically, they are a very left orientated club. So they attract many people, even those who are not football fans, who think along the same lines and respect their core values.
“They buy their merchandise, they purchase tickets, they want to become members of the club. St Pauli are making much more money than they were 10 years ago and financially they are very solid as a result.”
“Yes, Hurzeler going was a huge loss. He is at Brighton now for a reason, because he is a great manager. He had a very effective system and was an excellent communicator. He was a big factor in the success which the side enjoyed. But it wasn’t just down to him.
“Blessin fits really well into the club. He likes more of a gegenpressing style. They play high up the park try to get the ball back as soon as possible. The players have had to adjust a little bit and I think it will take a few weeks until they are fully committed to the new system. But when they are I am sure they will do well.
“They have the quality they need and should be able to stay in the league. It will be close because we don’t have that many bad teams in the Bundesliga. But Holsten Kiel, the other team that got promoted, are not as good as St Pauli, Heidenheim lost many players this summer and Bochum will struggle as well. I think they will survive.”
