Bundesliga

The 2015-16 European league season will be remembered for a number of reasons: Leicester City’s improbable Premier League title, Real Madrid’s dramatic Champions League triumph and the brilliant return to form of Mexico’s Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez.

The 28-year-old striker enjoyed his finest season since erupting onto the world’s radar with Manchester United in 2010-11. Following four frustrating seasons of being used sparingly as a substitute for both United and Real Madrid, Chicharito seized his opportunity as a regular starter with Bayer Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga.

The build up surrounding Poland’s Euro 2016 Championship campaign has been relatively quiet, and the Poles and their captain Robert Lewandowski certainly won’t be bothered by that. After capturing third place at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, this is a country that has had very little success on the biggest of international stages.

When Manuel Neuer continuously came hurtling out of goal against Algeria at the 2014 World Cup, most experts questioned the sanity of such a tactic. Obviously Germany would eventually be punished for holding such a preposterously high defensive line and for allowing their goalkeeper so many touches of the ball. 

Marco Fabian made it back into the Eintracht Frankfurt team as they secured their Bundesliga safety against FC Nürnberg. A Haris Seferovic goal proved the difference as Frankfurt won 1-0 in Nuremberg and 2-1 on aggregate.

Bayen Munich have won the DFB Pokal for a record 18th time.

Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich played out an intense and draining DFB Pokal final that ended up having to go to extra time.

As expected Bayern dominated the possession and the shot count, but Dortmund would not give in to their bitter rivals and refused to back down. 

Frankfurt captain Marco Russ has had a difficult week. On Wednesday, a routine doping test found an elevated level of the growth hormone HCG in his system, and the doctors found a tumor to be the root cause of the problem.

There was a lot of excitement when Marco Fabian made his move to Eintracht Frankfurt last summer. It was hoped that he could follow in the footsteps of his childhood friend and fellow Chivas youth graduate Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, who has been setting the Bundesliga on fire this season for Bayer Leverkusen. 

When Germany announced their preliminary squad for Euro 2016, the accompanying names were a comforting who’s who of Die Mannschaft familiarity. There’s good old hulking center forward Mario Gomez, the ageless but totally aging Bastian Schweinsteiger and footballer turned living memorial, Lukas Podolski.

Alongside the talents of Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil, Manuel Neuer and Jerome Boateng, this is a side that should certainly be favorites to win Euro 2016 as the reigning world champions.

Earlier this year, the Bundesliga announced that the league had recorded its second-highest Bundesliga attendance ever. A total of 6,478,680 fans attended 153 matches over the first half of the season with an average of 42,344 per game. By contrast, the Premier League averaged 36,452 over the entirety of the season. 

Bayern Munich can claim their fourth consecutive Bundesliga title by defeating Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday, and they’ve handed over the keys to their Snapchat account to German electronic music producer Paul Kalkbrenner to document the action.