Daily Schmankerl: Lewandowski eyeing Real Madrid while Dortmund threatens to clean house

“Lewandowski dreams in Madridista white” (Marca)

Ah Marca, their English translations hardly do justice to the original Spanish. According to them, Robert Lewandowski is plotting his move from Bayern Munich to Real Madrid, because of course he would.

Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images

Franck Ribéry: the Galatasaray diaries (These Football Times)

A fascinating look back at Franck Ribery’s professional breakthrough at Turkish giant Galatasaray, and the messy details of his decision to tearing his contract with Galatasaray and Marseille in France, after the Turks failed to pay him for four months.

Jupp Heynckes’ memorable German Cup matches for Bayern Munich (ESPN)

ESPN’s Mark Lovell gives you a guided tour to three memorable cup matches with Jupp Heynckes at the helm, including the Wunder von Weinheim, when mighty Bayern Munich was eliminated from the DFB Pokal by fourth-tier amateur club FV 09 Weinheim in 1990.

KHR and Uli Hoeness attend memorial for the 1958 Munich plane crash in which 8 Manchester United players lost their lives

Photo by Sebastian Widmann/Bongarts/Getty Images

Bayern president Uli Hoeness and chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge attended a memorial ceremony at Manchesterplatz in Riem, formerly the site of Munich’s international airport. Twenty-three people lost their lives when the plane carrying Manchester United’s team crashed sixty years ago on February 6, 1958.

Bayern Munich’s Ultras celebrate a player killed in Auschwitz on Holocaust Remembrance Day (Faszination Fankurve)

At Bayern’s match against Hoffenheim, the Südkurve celebrated Werner Sigismund Hecht with a giant choreo at the beginning of the second half. Born in 1915, Hecht joined Bayern's youth academy as an eleven-year-old and played for the first team. Hecht, his wife, and their three-year-old son, as well as his father and mother, all were murdered in Auschwitz in 1942-3. His sister survived. Hecht was just 27.

The LA Times also published a fascinating biopic on Kurt Landauer, The Jew who built Bayern Munich, then saved it after surviving the Holocaust.

Bayern, ManU, and Liverpool’s pursuit of Christian Pulisic is officially news

We reported this rumor a week ago, but now that The Sun has finally translated Sport Bild’s report, it is officially news. ESPN has gotten in on the action, too.

Jerome Boateng hails "brilliant" Guardiola and "beautiful" Manchester City (Goal.com)

Boateng is impressed by what his former coach Pep Guardiola is accomplishing with Manchester City:

He’s brilliant. For me, tactically, he is the best. . . This season City bought a lot of good players. They have a lot of money. Now you see more that it’s his team. They play very good football. It’s beautiful to watch.

Boateng also discussed Jupp Heynckes and Leon Goretzka.

And in other news...

Borussia Dortmund CEO threatens to “clean out the entire team at the end of the season” (ESPN)

Some may wonder what will be left to clean out, since the Premier League and Spain were already doing a fine job, but Hans-Joachim Watzke is sick of the halfhearted, lackluster performances that what is left of Borussia Dortmund continues to display. But would he really blow up the team?

Hertha Berlin offer fans a chance to have season ticket tattooed on arm (Bundesliga.com)

Well that's just so like Hertha, isn't it? The club asked fans to tell them why they deserved the unique distinction of having a lifelong season ticket tattooed on their arm.

Bundesliga clubs in favor of reforming 50+1 rule (Bild)

Hannover's boss Martin Kind has been attempting to obtain an exception to the 50+1, even threatening to launch a legal challenge. Bild's survey found a solid majority in favor of reform:

For: Augsburg, Bayern, Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Hertha, Köln, Leipzig, Leverkusen, Mainz, Schalke
Against: Dortmund, Freiburg, Gladbach
No comment: Hoffenheim, Stuttgart, Wolfsburg

The DFL has defused the threat of a lawsuit from Kind by compromising: now all 36 professional clubs will take part in a process to reform 50+1 so as to open the Bundesliga to investors and ensure its international competitiveness.