JAMES RODGERS takes a look at a German team zooming up the divisions and threatening the old status quo

EAST Germany has become a bleak footballing wasteland in recent years. The facts speak for themselves, as no clubs from the former DDR have appeared in the Bundesliga since 2009 and Toni Kroos was the only member of the entire World Cup-winning squad to have been born in those parts.So then one might assume that RB Leipzig’s meteoric rise from the fifth division to promotion favourites in the 2.Bundesliga in only four years would be a massive source of pride for the region...