Sporting passions of Bundesliga stars

bundesliga.com has a summary of what sports some of the stars of the Bundesliga have been keeping a keen eye on in their spare time over the holidays.

Barmy for ‘Barney’

FC Schalke 04’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar^[1] was among the crowd at London’s Alexandra Palace when his Dutch compatriot Raymond van Barnevald had his quarter-final tie with Michael Smith – and the ‘Hunter’ appeared to be something of a good luck charm for ‘Barney’, who booked his place in the semi-finals in a dramatic match.

Arjen Robben^[2] and Rafael van der Vaart have also lent their support to ‘Barney’ in the past, and the Dutch darts player has now vowed to return the favour. “He was delighted with the tickets and has already invited me to watch a match in Germany,” said ‘Barney’ after meeting up with Huntelaar.

US sports fan Boateng

FC Bayern München’s Jerome Boateng^[3] went a little further to pursue his passion for US sport, taking in the Miami Dolphins’ NFL clash with Indianapolis Colts live in the Florida city. He also tweeted about an exchange of shirts with basketball star Dwayne Wade of Miami Heat.

Boateng is not just a fan of basketball. As this video shows, he is not too bad at playing the game either…

Holtby feeling the Heat

Boateng was not alone in Miami, with Hamburger SV’s Lewis Holtby^[4] posting a photo on Facebook of him attending a Miami Heat game against the Dallas Mavericks and their German superstar Dirk Nowitzki. In the end, Holtby witnessed a clear 106-82 defeat for ‘Dirkules’.