Bundesliga
Burkardt and Mainz dare to dream
The fresh Germany international striker is fit again and on course for a fine season as captain of an impressive Mainz outfit - as his goal in the 3-1 win over Dortmund showed.
The emphatic way with which Jonathan Burkardt met Danny da Costa's ball from the right flank and slammed past Alexander Meyer in Mainz's 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund almost seemed routine for a striker that had recently earned his first Germany caps and moved to joint-third in the Bundesliga top scorers' race. That fact betrays just how smoothly the season is going so far for Burkardt and Mainz under Bo Henriksen.
Burkardt faced almost a year on the sidelines with a serious knee injury that ruled him out of the second half of 2022/23 and first half of last season. The 24-year-old Mainz youth product has therefore only twice featured in full Bundesliga seasons, and his six strikes already this campaign put him well on course to shatter his personal best of 11 in 2021/22.
Watch: All Jonathan Burkardt's Bundesliga goals so far
Burkardt's first start following his return from injury in December 2023 predated Henriksen's arrival by just two months. With the club in severe relegation danger when the Dane took charge, the striker soon found formidable form - netting six goals in an incredible unbeaten nine-match unbeaten run that saw the side surge to safety.
One of the standout results in that run was the 3-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in the penultimate matchday of 2023/24. An equally convincing 3-1 win over Dortmund following a fine start in the current campaign, with Burkardt striking just before the break to put his side 2-1 up, shows that the dynamic is still working wonders. He now has 29 Bundesliga goals for Mainz to his name, the third most in club history - with Karim Onisiwo's record of 33 also within his sights this season.
Henriksen has now lost just six of the 25 matches he has spent in charge of Mainz.
The club is known for providing a launchpad for promising players and coaches - with André Schürrle, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Loris Karius, Jürgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel all developing their crafts at the Rhineland outfit. Their current position, with Mainz 11th and four points shy of fourth-placed Bayer Leverkusen after ten matches, surely provides a platform for a stellar season in which the side might come closer to challenging for European places than flirting with relegation danger - and gives the likes of Burkardt and Henriksen reason to dream.