Gekas makes the German top five
Greece striker Fanis Gekas, last season’s highest scorer in the German Bundesliga, was voted one of the German league’s top five players in an annual poll conducted by local sports journalists. The poll results were published yesterday as the new season prepares to kick off today. Gekas, who topped the Bundesliga’s scoring list last season with Bochum but has now transferred to Leverkusen, ranked fourth in the poll with a total 47 votes. Mario Gomez of Stuttgart topped the polling with 196 votes. Werder Bremen’s Diego came second with 175 votes, and Leverkusen’s Bernd Schneider was rated third with 156 points. Torsten Frings of Werder Bremen tied in fourth place with Gekas. Stuttgart’s coach Armin Veh, who led the club to last season’s league title, was named the Bundesliga’s best coach with a total of 449 votes. Nuremberg’s coach Hans Meyer, who took the German club to last season’s cup title, ended second in the tally with 221 votes. Petrik Sander of Cottbus captured third place in the polling with 39 votes. In other Greek-related piece of Bundesliga news, Herta Berlin is close to signing Panathinaikos right back Loukas Vyntra, German media have reported.