We are back! The NextGoalWinner POTM awards roll on as football across Europe returns post-Christmas break. Fitting in around 3-5 matchdays for most European sides, some players have returned with some huge form, while others are recovering from the Christmas festivities. One player who has returned post-break with a bang, is our NextGoalWinner POTM for Europe in January 2022, the Borussia Mönchengladbach no.1 Yann Sommer.

Although the results for Borussia Mönchengladbach haven’t quite matched their keepers impressive form, Sommer has been very impressive in his 4 performances, including a huge win over the league’s dominant side Bayern Munich, and followed up with an impressive performance in which he saved 2, yes 2 penalties. So, a truly deserved winner, and as we saw in the Premier League January award, setting a new standard of becoming the first keeper to win the NextGoalWinner POTM for Europe, new year and new things from the prestigious awards.

As always, if you disagree or have anything to add to our pick of the month, head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) and let us know what you think.

Match By Match

January 7th: Bayern Munich 1-2 Borussia Mönchengladbach – Returning to football in Germany following the 2/3 week break, league leaders Bayern suffered a major stumbling block in the form of Borussia Mönchengladbach and keeper Yann Sommer. The no.1 bagged an 8.5/10 FotMob rating for his efforts, in which he made 5 saves, all 5 diving saves made from shots inside the box. Additionally, in 2 moments he came to play as a sweeper, he made 2 punch clearances and 22 accurate passes as he held out the worlds best attacker (despite the obligatory 1 he scored). In another surprising statistic, he was the most fouled player on the pitch (3), which shows how he was physically pressured from Bayern’s attack, yet kept his composure and remained resolute enough for Borussia Mönchengladbach to take all 3 points from Bayern Munich and set their month off in style.

January 15th: Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-2 Bayer Leverkusen – Following the incredible winning opener in January, the results plummeted in the remaining fixtures, falling to a 2-1 loss to Leverkusen. What cannot be questioned however from this performance, was the efforts of Sommer, the keeper who claimed a 9.2/10 rating, which despite the loss, showed his talents and made him the ‘star man’ of the game. The reasons for this high rating is due to his double penalty saves, in which he kept out not just 1 but 2 penalties in the game, almost the ‘goalkeeper hattrick’. Furthermore, he made a total of 12 saves, truly brilliant stats for a keeper. Of the 12, 10 were made from saves in the box, and 5 diving saves were made. The stats make great reading, however for Sommer the only one will matter unfortunately is the score.

January 19th: Hannover 96 3-0 Borussia Mönchengladbach – The poor results followed for Borussia Mönchengladbach as they were dumped out of the DFB Pokal competition to Hannover. Letting in 3 goals to a lower division opposition means Sommer suffered his 2nd lowest rating of the month (5.8/10). Making only 3 saves and letting in 3 goals, it wasn’t a performance that matched the previous two from the stopper (or not in this case), and will be one to forget when looking back.

January 22nd: Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-2 Union Berlin – In the final game, it was 3 losses from 4 for Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Sommer also suffered his lowest rating for the month (5.4/10). He managed just 1 save, and had an xG conceded of 1.31, all stats highlighting the whole side’s poor performance in this one. Admittedly, these last two performances do not warrant the top award for across Europe, however it’s the first 2 performances that secured the award by the middle of the month in truth, and for that reason Yan Sommer can look back fondly as he claims the first NextGoalWinner POTM award for Europe of 2022.