Bundesliga Clubs Miss Out in International Player Market

The annual off-season player shuffle has seen some of Germany's major soccer clubs unable to recruit several highly sought-after foreign players.

This means the German clubs will have to rely on home-grown talent to take them through the 2006-2007 season, which they argue is worth supporting.

Nine of the 11 players who took Germany to the semi-finals of the World Cup on home soil will be lining up for German Bundesliga clubs when the season kicks off next week.

However, champions Bayern Munich have failed to recruit Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, after the Bavarian club fell short of Manchester United's asking price.

Van Nistelrooy will now be representing Real Madrid after the club offered around 16 million euros ($20.5 million) for his signature on the dotted line.

Bayern General Manager Uli Hoeness said that the club chose to drop out of the bidding war for van Nistelrooy since the asking price for the player would have been ''against Bayern's philosophy."

Italian club Juventus was taxed of some of its elite players following a match-fixing debacle and subsequent club relegation. However, few of these players were relocated to Germany.

Ballack to Britain

German soccer star, Michael Ballack transferred from Bayern to wealthy English Premiership champions Chelsea, which has diminished the star quality of the Bundesliga.

Some German clubs, however, have successfully attracted foreign talent.

SV Hamburg landed Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart ahead of last season but failed this summer in a bid to recruit Milan Baros, the Czech international striker who was top scorer at Euro 2004. Baros will be staying with Premiership side Aston Villa.

Hamburg also succeeded bringing in Vincent Kompany, the highly rated 20-year-old Anderlecht centerback, for eight million euros.

Borussia Dortmund has landed Swiss Alexander Frei from French club Rennes in a deal worth four million euros.

Frei has already shown his worth, with the striker scoring four goals in 45 minutes in a game against a local Giessen team. Dortmund went on to win 13-0.

Stayed in the Bundesliga

Most of the summer transfers in Germany involved moves between Bundesliga clubs. Belgian centre-back Daniel Van Buyten, has traded in his Hamburg uniform for Bayern's and Peruvian striker Paolo Guerrero went in the opposite direction.

Dortmund meanwhile bought Nelson Valdez, the Paraguayan striker from Bremen to partner Frei.

Only Ballack, and goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, who remains at Premiership club Arsenal, will play abroad.

Miroslav Klose, the top scorer at the World Cup, has said he is staying with Werder Bremen -- at least for another season -- while Bayern bought Lukas Podolski, the 21-year-old forward who collected the Best Young Player award at the World Cup, from relegated FC Cologne.