Speaking German has never been a prerequisite to play in the Bundesliga, whose multi-national clubs have opened their arms to multi-lingual talent — even before the 1995 Bosman Ruling forbade EU countries from imposing limits on the number of EU players in a team.

But Energie Cottbus has taken that love of foreigners to new heights with players from 14 different countries — count ‘em, 14! — speaking 14 different languages in their line-up for the upcoming season. Mein Gott!

With players from countries ranging from A (Albania) to Z (Zypern, the German word for Cyprus) the small club with one of the smallest budgets in the Bundesliga have signed players from an astonishing array of nations. The reason: prices for foreigners tend to be lower than for Germans and the growing number of EU countries.

Cottbus already made German history in 2001 when they fielded 11 foreigners for the first time in a Bundesliga match in a 0-0 home draw with VfL Wolfsburg. The Cottbus players in that match came from eight different countries.

This year, the club in the small town near the Polish border have players from Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, China, Croatia, Denmark, France, Hungary, Germany, Macedonia, Poland, Romania as well as Albania (Ervin Skela) and Cyprus (Efstathios Aloneftis).

Most of the foreigners speak at least some English, according to coach Petrik Sanders. But not all speak German yet, and 10 of them are taking classes in the not-so-easy-to learn language of Goethe and Schiller after training sessions.

Viel Glueck!

Erik Kirschbaum, Berlin