According to a report in today’s Daily Mail, Leeds United are said ready to test the waters of Germany’s 2.Bundesliga competition in search of more goals.
The Daily Mail’s Simon Jones, amongst others, has said that the Whites have sent over scouts to Germany to watch the rangy striker in action for his loan side Holstein Kiel at Nuremberg last Saturday – a game that ended in a 2-2 draw without Ducksch scoring.
Goals for the Elland Road side have been a little hit-n-miss since a blistering start to the season that saw the West Yorkshire side top the Championship table. Of late, United have struggled in front of goal, with seven defeats in their last nine games.
Of course, Leeds already have one German striker on their books in SV Hamburg’s on-loan frontman Pierre-Michel Lasogga – scorer of five goals and provider of three assists. Adding on-loan St Pauli striker would bring the Whites German contingent to three – keeper Felix Wiedwald being the third one on the books at the West Yorkshire club.
With Jones and the Daily Mail saying that “club representatives watched the 23-year-old in action”, the question remains: who is Marvin Ducksch?
Four things about Marvin Ducksch
1. Current goals: Ducksch is the current 2.Bundesliga leading scorer with ten goals for Holstein Kiel. This ten-goal haul includes a brace against Erzebirge Aue and a hat-trick against FC Heidenheim – Ducksch’s goals helping his side to second in the table.
2. Goals in the back catalogue: Ducksch also has goals aplenty in his locker – judging by past performances. He started out as a burgeoning professional in the Borussia Dortmund set-up and played under current Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner for the German giant’s reserve side. During his time in the reserve and junior sides at Dortmund, Ducksch made 153 appearances, scoring 100 goals and providing 36 assists.
3. Range of goals – highlight reel:
4. International representation: the striker, who was once seen as a rising star at Dortmund, has featured at youth level for the German national side with 24 appearances overall. The bulk of these appearances (16) came for the Germany U-17 side managed by Steffen Freund. He scored four times for his country in total – against Azerbaijan and Egypt U-17s in international friendlies and Ecuador and the USA in the 2011 Under-17 World Cup.
