#9 Luca Toni

[Oliver_Kahn]

Fiorentina and Italy striker Luca Toni is set for a move to Bayern Munich, according to Viola club president Andrea Della Valle.


The 30-year-old former Palermo hit-man is also reported to have snubbed moves to several Serie A clubs - including Scudetto champions Internazionale and Champions League winners Milan - out of respect for Fiorentina.

"It is a beautiful gesture to the club and the city of Florence that Toni has decided to join Bayern Munich," Della Valle said of the player who helped fire Italy to World Cup glory last summer.

Bayern officials have already publicly made their interest for the player clear, although the £8 million move will come as a surprise to some with Bayern only competing in the UEFA Cup next season.

Fiorentina finished sixth in Serie A, also qualifying for the UEFA Cup.

Bundesliga - Toni set for Bayern move - Yahoo! eurosport UK

[Oliver_Kahn]

NOW FUCKING TELL ME THAT I MADE THIS UP!

[Oliver_Kahn]

After completing these signings, the line-up for next season should look like this:


.....................Kahn
Lahm.....Lucio...Ismael.....Jansen
.................v Bommel
...Altintop......Sosa.......Schweini
...............Toni....Podolski

[kyan]

is that Sosa from Estudiantes?

[Oliver_Kahn]

Yeah, Jose Ernesto Sosa

[kyan]

Has he signed?! and since when?

That team should walk the Bundesliga, it's surprising to see the first season in a while that Bayern really fail they attract some top class players (even though u have been granted more money etc.). The Bundesliga needs it but I don't know if all of them going to the same club will be good for the league.

[Oliver_Kahn]

We signed Sosa back in January, here:
#20 José Ernesto Sosa

People look at Serie A, La Liga and the Premiership as the top leagues and only accept to play there, so it's no easy to attract class players to the Bundesliga, we had to pay tons of cash for Luca Toni to accept our contract offer.

As for players coming all to the same club, Bayern are the only club in Germany with enough money to cover all these transfers, Werder Bremen, Schalke and Stuttgart can't compare to Bayern financially.

Nothing can be done about that, Bayern have established themselves as the top club in Germany that dominates the Bundesliga, the other clubs can only rely on signing great players from the smaller clubs, like Klose from Kaiserslautern to Werder or some bargains from other clubs like Diego to Werder.

The Bundesliga is underrated, it's definately as good as all the others, but doesn't have the same media coverage and the same hype by the media, as the other 3 top leagues do. Although the Bundelsiga has the highest attendance in Europe

[kyan]

Attendances in Germany are fantastic, but I think it's "unattractiveness" has a lot to do with the type of football played. from what I've heard other than Werder, dribbling isn't really encouraged much and every team plays with not conceding as their main priority and then scoring....

[Oliver_Kahn]

Which isn't true.

The bundesliga's matches have an average of 3 goals scored per match, of course the smaller teams play to not conceed and then score, but that happens everywhere! There are a lot of dribblers out there in the bundesliag, just to name a few:


Schweini, Karimi , Basturk, Hilbert, Diego, Lincoln, the Altintop brothers, Barnetta, Schneider, Freier, etc...

Each team has at least one good dribbler starting and 1 on the bench.

dribbling isn't really encouraged much

This part is also not true, you might have heard that in the bundesliga, they have a bit of a mechanic football, which means they are very pratical/direct, they quickly try to score goals, instead of constant passing and dribling like in La Liga. So the type of football isn't spectacular when you compare to La Liga and the Prem, but it's way more entertaining than the Serie A.

[Oliver_Kahn]

Btw, Bayern signed Toni for 13m € and Toni will be at Bayern until 2010.

Florenz bestätigt Toni-Wechsel zu den Bayern - 13 Millionen Ablöse

Der AC Florenz hat den Wechsel von Luca Toni zum FC Bayern München offiziell bestätigt. Wie die «La Gazzetta dello Sport» am Dienstag berichtete, treffen sich die beiden Clubs am Mittwoch in Florenz, um letzte Details zu klären. Bayern zahle für den italienischen Nationalstürmer eine Ablösesumme von 13 Millionen Euro. Den Vierjahresvertrag mit einer Gesamtgage von 20 Millionen Euro habe der Weltmeister bereits vor mehr als einem Monat bei den Bayern unterschrieben.

«Wir danken Luca Toni für seine Leistungen in den letzten beiden Jahren und für seine 49 Tore», teilte der AC Florenz mit. Angesichts des lukrativen Angebots aus der Bundesliga habe Florenz keine Chance gehabt, Toni zu halten, sagte Club-Präsident Andrea Della Valle. «Bei Angeboten von 5 bis 6 Millionen Euro pro Jahr, machte ein Gegenangebot gar keinen Sinn», räumte Della Valle ein. Der Club-Chef freute sich darüber, dass der auch in der italienischen Serie A umworbene Torjäger ins Ausland gegangen ist. «Dass Toni zu Bayern München gegangen ist, war eine schöne Geste gegenüber dem Club und der Stadt Florenz», sagte Della Valle.

Toni fiel der Abschied in der Hauptstadt der Toskana offensichtlich schwer. «Florenz werde ich für immer in meinem Herzen tragen», sagte der 30-Jährige beim Saisonabschlussfest des Clubs. Er gehe nach «zwei fantastischen Jahren» und lasse «viele wichtige Freunde» zurück.

Auch ohne Toni will der AC Florenz seinen Weg in die italienische Spitze fortsetzen. «Wir haben bewiesen, dass wir nicht von Toni abhängig sind», sagte Della Valle. Mit den Einnahmen durch den Transfer will der Club seine Mannschaft weiter verstärken. «2010 wollen wir dann um die Meisterschaft spielen», meinte Della Valle. In der vergangenen Saison belegte Florenz den fünften Tabellenplatz und zog damit in den UEFA-Cup ein.

Transfermarkt.de

[Sven]

Good buy, I don't know why the guy doesn't wanna play CL football.

Bayern should easily walk the Uefa cup.

[Oliver_Kahn]

He wants to play in the CL, he just doesn't want to play for another Italian club, that's why he rejected Inter and will sign fir Bayern.

[DavidMc]

Toni will get the opportunity to play Champions League football with Bayern in season 2008/09 im sure. This is a fantastic signing for Bayern. I think the title has to be heading to them next season. That team looks great, will be watching the Bundesliga carefully next season.

[alansmithy14]

is this true?? but if it is bayern made a great signing and if they sign franck ribery the team will be rly good and probably win the bundesliga this season

[Oliver_Kahn]

With all of these changes, the team will struggle a bit though, as the players aren't used to playing with each other.