One of the major talking points to emerge from Mainz 05’s 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen this weekend concerned German-Irish attacker Paul Nebel’s excellent assist on Sheraldo Becker’s opening goal. The fact that Becker scored at all, however, produced an interesting story in its own right. Becker and his fellow January transfer window addition Silas (Stuttgart) have both broken major Bundesliga scoring droughts.
Sheraldo Becker scores after a 1,023 day drought
Mainz deliberately targeted Sheraldo Becker during the current January transfer window in order to re-unite the former Union Berlin striker with his former head coach Urs Fischer. In his last half season in the German top flight (autumn 2023) Becker actually didn’t score a league goal during the dark final days of Fischer’s FCU coaching regime.
Becker collected a brace against Freiburg on May 13th 2023 during the peak of Fischer’s time in charge of die Eisernen. The Suriname international’s 11-goal Bundesliga campaign led Union to a top four finish and a Champions League berth. Congratulations from Fischer and sporting director Niko Bungert were in order.
Silas recently broke a 623 day Bundesliga scoring drought
The story of the Congo DR international’s fall from grace has always been a painful topic for Bundesliga journalists. A player who once seemed destined to take German football by storm ended up tanking due to injuries and legal issues associated with his Stuttgart signing. Stuttgart came close to terminating Silas’ contract outright this summer.
Thankfully, Mainz took a chance on the now 27-year-old in January. While his form has still been a tad spotty, Silas did score the crucial match-winning goal in matchday 20’s massive upset victory over RB Leipzig. Bungert was sure to praise Silas, who last scored for Stuttgart
Praise for Becker and Silas
“We had been hoping to start him for a few games now,” Fischer said of Becker at the post-match press conference. “But something always came up. [Today], Sheraldo was on the move a lot and worked really hard for the team.“
“We’re aware that we have two great counter-attacking talents in Becker and Silas,” Bungert added in the mixed zone.
