By Andrew Lord

30 June 2022

This preview will be constantly updated until the 2022/23 season begins.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

Hoffenheim has signed midfielder Grischa Prömel from Union Berlin and Finn Ole Becker from St. Pauli. Both have joined the club on free transfers. French centre-back Stanley Nsoki has signed from Club Brugge for a fee of €12 million.

18-year-old attacking midfielder Muhammed Damar has been signed from Eintracht Frankfurt U19 for €500,000. The club has also secured the services of Ozan Kabak from Schalke 04, for a fee said to be in the region of five to seven million euros. The 22-year-old Turkish international had joined Schalke in 2019 for €15 million, but the club loaned him out to Liverpool and Norwich City in the last two seasons.

But the club’s move to sign Ghanaian international Alexander Djiku from Strasbourg collapsed. The 27-year-old defender had successfully completed a medical, but according to French football magazine L’Equipe, the move broke down when Djiku’s agent, who is also his brother, suddenly demanded extra bonuses be included in the deal. German magazine Kicker claims this version of events is not true, but the reasons behind the termination of the deal remain unclear.

Left-back David Raum has signed for RB Leipzig for €26 million, centre forward João Klauss has signed for Major League Soccer club St. Louis City SC for €3.2 million, Armenian striker Sargis Adamyan has signed for Cologne in a €1.5 million deal and Mijat Gaćinović has joined AEK Athens for €1 million. Norwegian centre-back Havard Nordtveit and Florian Grillitsch have been released.

While trainer André Breitenreiter has not named any specific aims for his first season as Hoffenheim coach, his philosophy is to play attractive football.

Hoffenheim won four out of five pre-season friendlies. A 4-0 victory over FC-Astoria Walldorf, a 2-0 win against FC Heidenheim and a 2-0 win over Puskas FC Academy, were followed by a 2-2 draw with US Salernitana and a 3-2 win over Verona.

Hoffenheim face Regional League West club SV Rödinghausen in the first round of the German Cup on 31 July 2022 and play Borussia Mönchengladbach at the Borussia-Park in the first game of the season on 6 August 2022.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Borussia Mönchengladbach has been very quiet as far as transfer activities are concerned. 18-year-old midfielder Oscar Fraulo has joined the club from FC Midtjylland for a fee of €1 million. The club has also secured the services of Japanese international Ko Itakura from Manchester City for €5 million. The versatile 25-year-old defender had been on loan at Schalke 04 last season.

Swiss international striker Breel Embolo has left the club to join AS Monaco for a fee of €12 million. The 25-year-old scored 22 goals in 88 games during his time at Gladbach.

Slovak midfielder László Bénes has left the club to sign for Hamburg for €1.5 million, Swiss winger Steven Zuber has joined Greek Super League club AEK Athens in a €1.5 million deal, Rodrigo Zalazar has signed for Schalke 04 for €1.5 million and German international centre-back Matthias Ginter has joined Freiburg on a free transfer. Left-midfielder Keanan Bennetts has been released by the club and is now a free agent.

Borussia Mönchengladbach had negotiated with ex-trainer Lucien Favre about a return to the club, but he ultimately decided to take on the role as manager of French club Nice. New trainer Daniel Farke commented: “Lucien Favre is a great trainer, who did incredibly well here. It is completely understandable that the club pursued its interest in him.”

With regard to his own aims with the club, Farke said: “It is always important to be brutally honest when talking about goals. When you look at past decades, the club has done some very good work. But the truth is that the last 18 to 24 months have not been easy, they have been challenging. Last season, the club was involved in a relegation battle for a long period. After such a difficult time, it would be wrong to give euphoric objectives for the new season.”

Gladbach recorded three victories out of five in pre-season friendlies: a 4-2 win over Rot-Weiss Essen, a 6-0 victory over 1860 Munich and a 5-2 win against Viktoria Cologne, were followed by a 1-1 draw with Standard Liège, a 0-0 draw with MSV Duisburg, a 1-1 draw with RKC Waalwijk and a 1-1 draw with Real Sociedad.

Borussia Mönchengladbach play fifth tier club SV Oberachern in the first round of the German Cup on 31 July 2022 and host Hoffenheim in the first Bundesliga game of the season on 6 August 2022.

Eintracht Frankfurt

Frankfurt’s Europa League win means the club will be playing in the Champions League this season and the club has invested the cash windfall in adding real quality to the squad. The pick of the transfers being Mario Götze, who has joined the club in a €4 million deal from PSV Eindhoven and the Argentine striker Lucas Alario, who Frankfurt has signed from Bayer Leverkusen for €5.4 million. The club has also made the move of Jens Petter Hauge permanent after a season-long loan. He joins Frankfurt in a €12 million deal from AC Milan.

Frankfurt has further strengthened the squad by signing two Croatians: 21-year-old centre-back Hrvoje Smolcic, who has joined Frankfurt from HNK Rijeka for €1.5 million and defensive midfielder Kristijan Jakić, signed for €3.5 million from Dinamo Zagreb.

Austrian centre-back Martin Hinteregger has returned to his home country after his shock retirement from top-flight football following his links to a far-right politician. Croatian winger Filip Kostic has left the club, joining Juventus in a deal worth €12 million.

Trainer Oliver Glasner is delighted with the pre-season signings: “If we don’t lose any regulars from last season, I will be extremely happy, and we have also made some excellent signings to strengthen the squad.”

The aim this season is to get through the group stage of the Champions League and achieve a European place in the Bundesliga. But Glasner does not feel pressured by this: “The expectations have always been quite high and it’s obvious they will increase. I’m happy about this because it means the fans have faith in us. I deal with this in a relatively relaxed manner and I don’t let it affect me.”

In three pre-season friendlies, Frankfurt beat SV Nieder-Weisel 14-0, recorded a 1-0 victory over Viktoria Aschaffenburg, drew 0-0 with Linzer ASK and beat Torino 3-1.

Eintracht Frankfurt play Bundesliga 2 side Magdeburg in the first round of the German Cup on 1 August 2022 and host Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga season opener on 5 August 2022. Frankfurt will face Real Madrid in the 2022 UEFA Super Cup at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on 10 August.

VfL Wolfsburg

Polish winger Jakub Kamiński has joined the club in a €10 million deal from Lech Poznań, Croatian midfielder Bartol Franjić has been signed from Dinamo Zagreb for €7.5 million, while Patrick Wimmer has joined the club from Arminia Bielefeld for €5 million and Kilian Fischer has been signed from FC Nuremberg for €2.5 million. Swedish midfielder Mattias Svanberg has joined the club from Bologna for a fee of around €9 million.

Austrian midfielder Xaver Schlager has left the club, signing for RB Leipzig for €12 million. But Wolfsburg will be buoyed by the news that Dutch defender Micky van de Ven has rejected advances from PSV Eindhoven and will stay at the club. The 21-year-old, who joined Wolfsburg from FC Volendam last summer for €3.5 million, admitted that there had been some contact with PSV, but stated that his plan is to remain at Wolfsburg. US international centre-back John Anthony Brooks has been released and is now a free agent.

The club has been dealt a blow after it emerged that midfielder Yannick Gerhardt will miss the start of the season. The 28-year-old will be out for two months after sustaining a knee injury in the 7-1 victory over WSG Tirol in a pre-season friendly.

New trainer Niko Kovač has returned to the Bundesliga after a three-year absence and he has high ambitions for Wolfsburg. “Last season’s twelfth place finish wasn’t satisfactory to anyone in Wolfsburg. In the past few years, the club has played in the Champions League and Europa League. That is what the club wants, and that’s what we want. We want to compete and be successful.”

In five pre-season friendlies, Wolfsburg lost 3-1 to VfL Osnabrück, drew 1-1 with Hannover, beat WSG Tirol 7-1, won 4-3 against KV Mechelen and beat Brentford 4-0.

VfL Wolfsburg play Regional League North-east club Carl Zeiss Jena in the first round of the German Cup on 30 July 2022 and host newly promoted Werder Bremen at the Volkswagen Arena in the first game of the Bundesliga season on 6 August 2022.

© Andrew Lord 2022