Bochum's Zoller moves to St. Pauli
After a transfer to Fortuna Düsseldorf fell apart at the last moment, VfL Bochum striker Simon Zoller was officially unveiled as a "Kiezkicker" on Friday afternoon.
One of the heroes of VfL Bochum's promotion back to the German top flight gradually found himself of less use to the Revierklub during their two seasons back in the top division. It was such that 32-year-old striker Simon Zoller lodged a transfer request with the VfL some weeks back. The former Karlsruhe, Kaiserslautern, Osnabrück, and Köln attacker appeared to be headed to Fortuna Düsseldorf for much of the week.
Hamburg's FC St. Pauli nevertheless took advantage of a last minute opening and lured the veteran to the Millerntor. The northern city-state club have certainly helped their promotion aspirations by adding the scorer of 40 2. Bundesliga goals for his various clubs. German footballing sources currently report that Bochum have received only very modest compensation for their want-away player.
"Simon Zoller is an experienced striker," St. Pauli sporting director Andreas Bornemann noted in a statement, "In general, he is a very team-serving player who makes all those around him better.We are convinced that Simon will do us good both as a personality and as a player and can improve us decisively. We are pleased that he has decided to join FC St. Pauli."
"Simon Zoller approached us with the desire to move," Bochum personnel executive Marc Lettau added, "Because he is a player with great merits for VfL, we have complied with his wish, especially since the other general conditions for this transfer also fit."