Former and current Bundesliga stars on break: Davies scores, Pulisic groans, Jovic snubbed

Three young Bundesliga stars, two former and one current, showed the whole range of footballing success this past international break. Alphonso Davies, Bayern Munich’s young Canadian talent, scored the difference-making goal last night in a clash vs the US Men’s team, while former Borussia Dortmund winger Christian Pulisic was subbed out early in the second half, extending a run of poor form and lack of minutes. Luka Jovic meanwhile failed to feature for Serbia at all.

Pulisic and Jovic were both big money transfers out of the Bundesliga after last season, but have found tough sledding in their new homes.

Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Alphonso Davies

Davies had himself a week. As fellow BFW writer Andreas Borst outlined in greater detail, Phonzie was nominated for the Golden Boy award this week and as a fixture for the Canadian National Team scored in the 63’ to put the US rivals up 1-0; a lead they never relinquished.

At just 18 Davies hasn’t logged a ton of first-team minutes for Bayern Munich, but he scored his first goal last season and continues to work hard for both club and country. He is a young talent on the rise.

Christian Pulisic

The USMNT suffered an embarrassing 2-0 loss to the Canadian team last night, with their superstar Christian Pulisic subbed off early in the 60’ after being largely ineffective. It follows Pulisic having a hard time getting any minutes in a Chelsea kit and even being left of the roster entirely for their Champions League squad.

It was an image in contrasts last night as Pulisic was in tears being subbed off followed by Davies’ tie breaking goal just 3 minutes later.

As reported by AS English,

The player was visibly distressed with the decision, which compounds his frustrating season to date. Despite a high weight of expectation on the 21-year-old following his big money move from Dortmund, the attacking winger admits that acclimatisation to the demands of the Premier League has been difficult.

After his €64m ($73m) transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea, it remains to seen if Pulisic can recapture the potential he flashed in the Bundesliga.

Luka Jovic

Another top Bundesliga talent who left after a terrific season at Eintracht Frankfurt, Luka Jovic, has had a bizarre beginning to his career in Madrid. With the club in turmoil after the rehiring of Zinedine Zidane and numerous transfer rumours, Real Madrid forked over $67.5 million dollars for the Serbian striker.

Just shortly after arriving leaks began to come out that he was not ready for playing time at Real Madrid and might even be immediately sent away on loan. Jovic may have laughed off the rumors then, but he still has played very little for Real Madrid. And this week he was even left off the Serbian National team during the break, after a spat with the coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic (Marca).

So while it appears Bayern’s Davies continues his upward trend, it remains to be seen if Jovic and Pulisic can live up to their high price tags.