Written by Stefan Bienkowski at Washington Post.com
The headlines on Wednesday morning from U.S. national team star John Brooks’s transfer deal in the German Bundesliga captured the history: The central defender is the most expensive American international in the history of the game. His move from Hertha Berlin to Wolfsburg for a reported fee of 20 million euros (a little less than $22.5 million) doubled the previous record Sunderland spent to bring in Jozy Altidore in 2013.
Brooks, 24, had been linked with the Volkswagen-owned club since January and rarely hid his desire to move on to bigger and better things. His decision to join the 2015 German Cup winners, however, is a risky move.
It’s not the fee, which is paltry compared to the fortunes Wolfsburg and many other top-tier European clubs have spent on previous targets. It’s not simply that Hertha Berlin was successful enough in the Bundesliga this past season to qualify for the Europa League, while Wolfsburg had to survive a relegation playoff to stay in the top division after finishing in 16th place. It’s that Wolfsburg’s money has often been spent in vain, and drama seems to be woven into its DNA.
Consider the tale of striker Max Kruse, who joined the club for nearly $13.5 million in May 2015. In October of that year, he played a poker tournament in nearby Berlin — then left about $83,000 in winnings in the back of a taxi. The club fined him about $30,000 for playing in the tournament without permission, then doubled down by publicly shaming him for eating too much Nutella. By the end of the embarrassing week he was kicked off Germany’s national team.
The 29-year-old forward certainly contributed to his own downfall at Wolfsburg, but it’s quite telling that he’s rarely struggled to perform at his other stops in the Bundesliga. Before Wolfsburg, he averaged 0.63 goals or assists per game at Borussia Monchengladbach. In two seasons with his current club, Werder Bremen, he’s improved to 0.92 goals or assists per game. In his trouble-filled season at Wolfsburg, he managed just 0.48 per game.
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