Why do English players avoid the Bundesliga?

The lists of Danes, Dutch, Poles, Swedes and Swiss moving around the Bundesliga these days, are as long as an Arjen Robben run. But, this winter break, England players were again notable in their absence in the rumor mill surrounding Bundesliga trades. In fact, the only story from England that caused a stir in German football circles surrounded Andre Schürrle.

It seems the 'home of football' is so comfortable to most English players, they never want to leave. But what happened to those that did make the move in the past, and who bedded down in the Bundesliga? Are they a magnificent seven, or a roll-call of also rans?

Leaving out dual British-German national Lewis Holtby who grew up in Germany, Michael Mancienne is the only truly English footballer with Bundesliga experience who is still playing. But his 49 appearances in three years with Hamburger SV are not exactly the stuff of legend. Now a regular fixture at English Championship side Nottingham Forest, the central defender signed for HSV from Chelsea for a fee in the region of 1.75 million pounds (2.3 million euros) in July 2011, but he struggled with injuries and never established himself in Germany.

"I felt as a player it would improve me and that it would be the perfect challenge because football is a short career," Mancienne told "The Daily Mail" newspaper in May 2013. "All the better teams in England try to play football, but every team in Germany plays football no matter what level they are. You are trying to out-think your opponents rather than beat them up."

When Mighty Mouse came to Germany

Hamburg fans will probably forgive England for Mancienne, because it also gave them Kevin Keegan. The player they grew to love as 'Mighty Mouse' signed from Liverpool in 1977 for 500,000 pounds and went on to achieve cult status at the Volsparkstadion, winning the Bundesliga in 1979, and the Ballon d'Or twice.

But despite his likeable nickname, 'Mighty Mouse' initially struggled. Back then he was the highest paid player in Germany, and this caused resentment among his teammates, who reportedly would not pass to him in training. As Keegan said in a recent interview, "Going to Germany, it was a tough one. Five or six years at Liverpool and I'd run my race there. I just fancied a challenge, and Germany was my challenge."

Winning titles and trophies tends to win over doubters, and by the end of his time in Germany, Keegan had done both. It was not the fairytale ending he would have wanted, however: his last game for HSV before returning to England for Southampton was the 1980 European Cup final defeat to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest.

The Forest connection to the Bundesliga continues with Tony Woodcock, an England international striker who came through the club's youth team and made 129 appearances before Clough sold him to Cologne in 1979. The third player of the trio of English players who 'made it' in Germany was Owen Hargeaves. But the case of Hargreaves is a little different to the rest. Born and raised in Canada, he moved at the age of 16 to Germany and entered the youth system of Bayern Munich, where he made 145 appearances in seven injury-hit years. He remains the only player to have played for England without having previously lived there.

What about the rest?

So what about the other three Englishmen to have dipped their toes in the Bundesliga? Dave Watson was an England international who made over 700 appearances for 12 different clubs - but only two of these came in Germany. Watson was sent off for violent conduct in only his second match for Werder Bremen after signing from Manchester City in 1979. He was banned for so long, he had already returned home to England before completing his ban. It seemed the German style of play didn't really agree with him.

Londoner Peter Hobday played three seasons with the Stuttgart Kickers before making 69 appearances in the midfields of Hannover and Frankfurt between 1986 and 1990.

Finally, Mark Farrington was the archetypal journeyman striker who mustered a meager 53 goals in 13 years in England, the Netherlands and Belgium. He played nine games for Hertha Berlin in the 1990-91 season in the German capital, but failed to make an impact.

In fact, Hargreaves aside, English players have made a combined total of only 347 appearances for Bundesliga clubs. That's even fewer than Bayern's Peruvian striker Claudio Pizarro has managed on his own (377 and counting).

Staying in Germany

So why do so few English players stay in Germany? Of the born-and-bred Englishmen on the list, Woodcock's case is perhaps the most compelling. He returned to Cologne in 1986 and settled in Germany after hanging up his boots. He mastered the language and went into management with VfB Leipzig and Preussen Cologne (now Viktoria Cologne).

Speaking to "The Independent" newspaper in 1995,Woodcock explained how he had made Germany his second home back then. "It can take a while to re-adjust being English, " he said.

"It is a different culture but, then again, I am only 15 minutes from the airport. I can be in the West End (of London) in an hour-and-a-half. The world gets smaller."

Twenty years on and the world is smaller still, yet the only English player since Woodock to have moved from the Premier League to the Bundesliga remains Michael Mancienne. English players continue to shy away from Germany, perhaps due to the lack of really big pay checks on offer or due to the relatively high tax rates.

Hamburg broke the bank for Keegan in 1977 but it was financed by Japanese manufacturing giant Hitachi. These days the Bundesliga rich list is dominated by Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Franck Ribery, who reportedly earn salaries around the 10 million euro mark ($11 million). But if you look beyond Bayern, the next-highest earner is reportedly is Klass-Jan Huntelaar at Schalke on around 5 million euros, equivalent to 70,000 pounds a week. Would a leading light of the Premier League move for much less than that? Probably not.

Or maybe English players don't come to Germany because they don't see a move to the Bundesliga really benefitting their careers. Still, the German leagues are poorer for it. And maybe the players themselves are missing something too, on how the game is played in the home of the world champions.