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Tonight marks the return of Europe’s most entertaining league. More than 80,000 fans will cram into Signal Iduna Park to watch Borussia Dortmund play host to Hamburger SV, while millions more will tune in across the globe as the Bundesliga gears up for its latest kick-off.
If fans ever tire of watching Barcelona’s endless tiki-taka football, they could do worse than check out Borussia Dortmund.
The Ruhrpott giants were simply mesmerising last season as coach Jürgen Klopp lead one of the youngest squads in Bundesliga history to a thrilling title romp.
Goals rained in from all angles as Japanese starlet Shinji Kagawa, the precociously talented Mario Götze and Paraguayan poacher Lucas Barrios thrilled Europe’s largest average attendance with some breathtaking football.
The unexpected title win proved a double delight for Dortmund fans, who watched on with glee as hated local rivals Schalke struggled to avoid relegation.
The Gelsenkirchen side eventually finished four points above the drop zone, only for one of their local heroes to become embroiled in the kind of soap opera-style transfer saga beloved by Bundesliga fans all over the world.
Coveted by some of Europe’s biggest clubs, many expected goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to sign for Manchester United – in part due to his close allegiances to hometown club Schalke.
Instead, the German international has joined Bayern Munich, and aren’t some of the Bayern fans unhappy about it?
Neuer incensed the notoriously feisty Bayern supporters in a 2009 clash at the Allianz Arena when he imitated former Bayern great Oliver Kahn by ripping out the corner flag to celebrate a victory.
The Bayern faithful never forgot and somewhat humourously their “Ultras” have issued a set of stern directives for Neuer to follow if the former badge-kissing Schalke star is to be accepted by fans of his new club.
The antics of “FC Hollywood” are bound to amuse throughout the campaign, but sadly everyone’s favourite cult club St. Pauli have been relegated back to their spiritual home in the second tier, joined by the equally popular Eintracht Frankfurt.
Fortunately they’ve been replaced by a couple of interesting outfits in the form of capital club Hertha Berlin and Bavarian upstarts Augsburg.
Hertha are, of course, home to Australian striker Nikita Rukavytsya, and when the townsfolk get behind them, the cosmopolitan outfit can call upon some of the largest attendances in Europe at their historic Olympiastadion home.
Meanwhile, FC Augsburg are an unknown force in what is their first ever season in the top flight.
Their Impuls Arena home is brand new and will no doubt be packed to its 30,000 capacity for every game, while clashes with local rivals Bayern and Nürnberg are bound to be highlight fixtures.
Augsburg aren’t the only small club with a new ground: FSV Mainz take on last year’s runners-up Bayer Leverkusen at their new Coface Arena on Sunday, leaving SC Freiburg as virtually the only top-flight team playing out of something akin to an old-school ground.
For those who’ve never watched a game in Germany, it’s an exhilarating experience marked by some of the loudest crowds anywhere in the world.
It’s also home to some fabulous football and unlike certain other leagues in Europe, more than one or two clubs are capable of winning it.
A star-studded Bayern are arguably the favourites, but as any fan of the Bundesliga will attest, it’s virtually impossible to predict a winner at the start of a new season.
What is certain is that Europe’s most exciting football league is back, and if last season is anything to go by, we should be in for another cracking campaign this time around.