Just as Landon Donovan starts his loan spell at Bayern Munich, the German champion has signed another striker. Hamburg’s Croatian forward Ivica Olic will join the Bavarian team at the end of the season.
Olic is being seen as a replacement for Lukas Podolski, who has been linked with his former club FC Cologne for some time and is expected to move in the summer. But while Bayern and Cologne haggle on a transfer fee, Hamburg has now also declared an interest in Podolski. An immediate straight swap with Olic had been talked about in the German media, but Hamburg manager Dietmar Beiersdorfer on Monday quashed that rumor and said Olic won’t move until the end of the season.
In the short term, Donovan will be competing with Italian forward Luca Toni and German national team striker Miroslav Klose for a starting spot at Bayern. Podolski has spent much of this season so far on the bench.