Monthly Awards: March 2024

The madness of March is at an end (excluding basketball) and that means another Monthly Awards to recap what happened in the first month of spring. March is always a great month for sport outside of football anyway with the likes of Milano-Sanremo and the NCAA basketball tournament already mentioned, but the top two tiers of German football also delivered their fair share of great moments and great individuals, starting with the best of the Bundesliga. 

Bundesliga

Player of the Month: Serhou Guirassy (Stuttgart)
For the second time this season, Serhou Guirassy has picked up the Bundesliga Player of the Month award on this website, being the first player to do so in the top flight. Sure it’s not the most prestigious award on the planet, but it is a reflection on how well he played in March. He scored goals in all four of Stuttgart’s matches, netting two in a 3-2 win over Wolfsburg, and one each in a 2-0 win against Union Berlin, 3-0 win against Hoffenheim, and 3-3 draw with Heidenheim. He’s ludicrously on 23 goals in 21 games and would be the story in the Bundesliga if not for a certain Englishman from Bavaria. Credit also has to go to a long list of players this month: Stuttgart teammate Angelo Stiller, Florian Wirtz and Alejandro Grimaldo of Bayer Leverkusen, and Arne Maier and Kristijan Jakic of Augsburg. 

Manager of the Month: Xabi Alonso (Bayer Leverkusen)
Another person who has been awarded multiple times on this website, Xabi Alonso moves into the prestigious three-timers club with Marcel Hartel. This is his second Manager of the Month Award in a row and his third of the season. Again, it’s hard to complain with a 100% record. Leverkusen opened up the month with a 2-0 win over rivals Köln, beat Wolfsburg by the same score, won 3-2 away at Freiburg, and then had that dramatic 2-1 win against Hoffenheim to close the month. They’re now 13 points clear of Bayern with 7 to go and remarkably are still undefeated this season in all competitions. You simply cannot argue with stats like that. Credit also remarkably goes to Edin Terzić, whose side didn’t play as well but you can’t argue with 100%, Stuttgart’s Sebastian Hoeneß, and Jess Thorup of Augsburg are also honourable mentions. 

Goal of the Month: Jamal Musiala (Freiburg vs Bayern)
When it comes to deciding who wins Goal of the Month, my main criterion is how difficult it would be to replicate the goal. Jamal Musiala’s amazing solo effort against Freiburg, where he ducked and weaved his way past defenders before scoring, feels like the hardest goal to replicate in March (though I wouldn’t be able to replicate any goal scored in the league this month). Credit also goes to Florian Wirtz’s goal against the same side, Chris Führich and Karim Adeyemi’s goals against Union Berlin, Gnabry and Amiri’s goals in the Bayern vs Mainz game, and Jadon Sancho’s solo effort against Werder Bremen, which was a close second place.

2. Bundesliga

Player of the Month: Christos Tzolis (Fortuna Düsseldorf)
Now you know why they set up a GoFundMe don’t you? Never has a choice for Player of the Month been this easy. Christos Tzolis wasn’t just the best player in the league this month, he was so comfortably better than everyone else that I don’t even have honourable mentions, because none of them come close to Christos. Arguably the man of the match in every single game he played, Christos started the month scoring both goals as Düsseldorf drew 2-2 with Hannover, he then had a hand in both goals as they beat HSV 2-0 in a vital top-of-the-table clash, he would contribute to three of their four goals against Osnabrück, and rounded off the month with two goals as the now third-placed side came from behind to beat Kaiserslautern. One thing is for certain, Düsseldorf should feel fortuna-nate to have the Greek midfielder. 

Manager of the Month: Daniel Thioune (Fortuna Düsseldorf)
Congratulations to Daniel Thioune on becoming the first 2. Bundesliga manager to win MOTM multiple times this season. Düsseldorf entered the month on the very fringes of the promotion race, five behind HSV in third with eleven to go. But in four high-pressure games, they not only were the best side in the league, they launched themselves into the promotion places. You already know those games as I discussed how vital Christos Tzolis was, but Hannover were (and are) another promotion contender and getting a point away was good, if not disappointing as F95 were actually 2-0 up, they completely dominated HSV to help Thioune get revenge. Osnabrück might not look like the strongest team on paper, but let us not forget how much better they’ve been under Uwe Koschinat and did beat HSV 2-1, and Kaiserslautern were on a good run of form before the Fortuna express ran them down. The month has been nearly perfect for the side from Nordrhein-Westfalen, and you wouldn’t bet against them to either win in the promotion play-off or go up automatically. 

Goal of the Month: Jomaine Consbruch (Fürth vs HSV)
I was going back and forth between five separate goals for this award: Keke Topp’s late equaliser against Paderborn, Can Uzun’s solo effort against Hertha Berlin, Ba-Muaka Simakala’s volley against Osnabrück, and of course, the two goals in the Fürth vs HSV game. I described that game on the podcast as having “its own mini goal of the month contest,” so it really shouldn’t be a surprise that I opted for a goal from that match. As said as well on the pod, I do think Jomaine Consbruch’s equaliser was the better of the two, an outswinging shot from way out finding the top corner, but still take nothing away from Miro Muheim’s opener, it was tough to pick between the two.