The Bundesliga Tax

Sick of reading about the Man City case? Well step this way!

One of the other themes going around the football social media world is that of a Bundesliga tax — the idea that the high profile signings have largely underperformed since moving from Germany to England. Wirtz is the captain of that team at the moment, and just to highlight his demise, his Wikipedia page hasn’t even been updated for this season’s 6 Premier League appearances. It’s been pretty bleak for him. Liverpool gave Germany the Beatles. Germany gave Liverpool Florian Wirtz.

But they also gave them Szoboszlai and Gravenberch — two of the better Anfield signings in recent years. So is there any truth in the Bundesliga tax? We’ll have a look at a handful of big signings — either in transfer fee or reputation — compare their stats between the two leagues, and see what it tells us.

Goals and assists are the easiest comparisons to make, so this will be weighted to attacking players. And perhaps that’s where the tax applies — as we’ve seen with the two Liverpool midfielders, plus the likes of Pascal Gross, there are plenty of good players that have come from the Bundesliga. And before someone dives across the floor in homage to Klinsmann, this is looking at recent players, as no one really mentioned it previously (Yeboah, Riedle, Sean Dundee…?).

How to read the tables

Because the coloured columns are the whole point of the site. Goal involvements are goals plus assists. Top 6, Middle and Bottom 6 are that league’s own table. The Bundesliga has 18 teams, so the middle for them is 6 teams instead of 8. Finished seasons use the final table. This season, 2026/27, is through Sunday 11 October, and those bands are wherever the opponents sit today. Age, where I give it, is age at the move.

The one who makes the theory look silly

Let’s get the big one out of the way first. Haaland has more than repaid his fee (don’t mention the charges), and the tax too. He was 21 when he left Dortmund for Manchester City in the summer of 2022, off 22 goals and 7 assists in 24 Bundesliga games. Twenty-nine involvements, eight of them against the side of the table that was supposed to be the hard bit. England, we were told, would be different, and there were people wondering who would do better out of him and Darwin Núñez. That didn’t last too long.

City got 36 league goals in his first season. Across 138 Premier League appearances since, including six in six this year, he has 142 involvements.

Eight of those 29 Dortmund involvements were against the top six, about 28%. In the Premier League it is 37 of 142, about 26%. He did not arrive in a harder league and start feasting on the bottom six. He kept scoring at both ends of the table. Whatever the Bundesliga tax is, it does not apply to a striker who was already doing it against the best teams in Germany. He is the problem for the theory. Though he does have a weird habit of going missing in finals.

Hits that are not Haaland

Kevin Schade is an interesting one — and could offer some hope for Wirtz. He was a similar age (21 to Wirtz’s 22) when he joined Brentford in January 2023, and was signed for potential. The first year and a bit in England was exactly what a cautious signing looks like. No goals in 18, then 2 in 11. Then it turned. Eleven goals in 2024/25, eight and three assists in 2025/26, three more in six this season. Thirty-one Premier League goal involvements (0.28 per game) from a player who had 6 in 29 Bundesliga games (0.21 per game). That’s an improvement, and would see a healthy profit.

Hugo Ekitike is another success — though part of his praise was that Wirtz and Frimpong (both from Leverkusen) underperformed so much. He undoubtedly had a good season in 2025/26 though. Not as good as his final Frankfurt season, but he returned a decent 15 goal involvements (11+4) in 28 Premier League games. Signed at twenty-three in July 2025, after 15 goals and 8 assists in the Bundesliga, the feeling is that he’ll continue to improve. Currently recovering from a ruptured Achilles in April 2026, Liverpool fans are hoping he picks up where he left off when he’s back.

The tax

Florian Wirtz is the one the theory was invented for. He joined Liverpool in the summer of 2025, aged 22, with two seasons of 22 goal involvements behind him and 29 goals plus 39 assists across 104 Bundesliga games. England has given him 5 goals and 3 assists in 33, and not one of those eight involvements against the top six. This season is six games, no goals, one assist. Sixty-eight involvements in Germany (0.65 per game). Nine in the Premier League (0.23). You can talk about the role, the team, the settling-in year, but the drop off has been pretty stark. There are the odd touches of finesse here and there, but you can get that from Julio Enciso at Ipswich.

Xavi Simons is the same story with a smaller fee and a worse injury. He was 22 when he arrived at Tottenham on 29 August 2025. Leipzig had just had 10 goals and 6 assists from him in 25 games, after 8 and 11 the year before. Thirty-five involvements in 57 (0.61 per game). Then Spurs got 2 goals and 5 assists in 28 (0.25). He tore his ACL in April and has not played this season, so that is the whole Premier League sample. At least he had the excuse of playing in a team fighting relegation.

Jury’s out

Omar Marmoush is the awkward one, because for three months he looked like a potential world beater, with people (perhaps lazily) comparing him with his countryman Salah. That was a bit premature, as things died off pretty significantly after that first half season with City.

He was 25 when he moved from Frankfurt in January 2025, leaving behind 15 goals and 9 assists in 17 Bundesliga games (1.4 per game) in his final half season there. City saw 7 goals from him in 16 that spring and it felt like a hit, even with no assists beside them. Then 2025/26 was 3 goals and 3 assists in 21 appearances, 693 minutes. This summer he moved again, to Spurs, and five league games have produced nothing. He’s not quite a miss yet, as there looks to be a player there, but he’s not a hit either.

Nick Woltemade is another tricky one. He wasn’t really an out-and-out striker at Werder Bremen, but was scoring goals. Newcastle signed him and then tried to make him an out-and-out striker, before randomly putting him into centre mid by the end of his one Premier League season.

Stuttgart in 2024/25 was the high point, 12 goals and 2 assists in 28 (0.5 per game). He was 23 when Newcastle bought him, and returned a half decent 8 goals and 3 assists in 33 Premier League games (0.33). He has already left. Four Serie A appearances for Juventus, 73 minutes, no involvements. A maybe who didn’t stay long enough for the argument to finish.

Benjamin Šeško is the best of this group and the jury is still out. He was 22 when he joined Manchester United in the summer of 2025, after 14 Bundesliga goals and then 13. First English season: 11 goals and 1 assist in 30. That is a decent opening year, better than anyone else in the “we’ll see” pile, and it is why “miss” would be harsh. This season is four appearances and 67 minutes, with one goal in them. Leipzig was an involvement every other game. United is a bit under that, and the minutes have fallen off a cliff. Check again in May.

They came, they struggled, they went home, and the goals came back

Füllkrug and Nkunku are interesting in that they were both misses who have ended up going back to the Bundesliga, only to improve again. The Bundesliga tax is alive and well here.

Niclas Füllkrug was 31 when he left Dortmund for West Ham in 2024. The two seasons before were a striker who knew where the goal was: 16 and 5 assists for Werder (and the golden boot), five of the goals from the spot, then 12 and 8 at Dortmund. West Ham got 3 goals and 2 assists in 18 games, then eight games and a zero. Milan saw an even worse return in the same 2025/26 season. Four goals in 46 league games away from Germany.

He is back at Werder now. Five games, four goals, none of them penalties, three of the four against the current top six. His performances in the 2023/24 Champions League showed he’s a good player, but he struggled abroad.

Christopher Nkunku was 25, and the drop was steeper. Leipzig had just watched him score 20 and assist 13, then score 16 and assist 4. Fifty-three involvements in 59 games (0.9 per game). Chelsea, over two seasons, got 6 goals and 2 assists in 38 appearances (0.21). Milan looked like an upturn until you read the penalty column. Seven goals, five of them from the spot, plus three assists. Better than Chelsea. Not the player who left Leipzig.

Like Füllkrug, he’s back in the Bundesliga again and the goals are back. Five games, four goals and an assist, no penalties.

So is it real?

For social media in a slow international break, there are enough examples of it to gain traction. But then that’s overlooking the successes. Part of the problem on the names we’ve looked at is a lack of patience. Schade got it and thrived. Wirtz and Simons have had only one full season, Woltemade the same, Nkunku similar in terms of minutes. Szoboszlai also improved over time. De Ligt, at centre back, doesn’t have a hugely different clean sheet record from Bayern to Man Utd.

Age is doing some of the work and not all of it. Haaland was 21. Schade was 21. Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Simons and Šeško were 22. Ekitike and Woltemade were 23. Marmoush was 25. Füllkrug was 31. Not many were signed in their prime years (26–30).

How does it compare to other nations?

Well, based solely on the top 10 transfer fees from the other top leagues — you be the judge on whether they were a success or not.

La Liga to the Premier League

At least three flops from Spain.

Serie A to the Premier League

Slightly better hit rate from Italy.

Ligue Un to the Premier League

Jury is out on Ligue Un.

What else?

Looking at the more recent transfers would be to overlook Havertz, De Bruyne, and a few other successes — but it also overlooks Sancho and Pulisic. So a mixed bag. Not significantly different to the other top leagues. Getting transfers right is hard.