The Bundesliga is BACK ...with a weekend feast of live TV games

Rae can’t wait as the Germans anticipate worldwide audience FOR ALL BREAKING SPORTS NEWS VISIT

WHO knows? If the radio signal from Hamburg to Aberdeen had not been quite so clear in the early 1980s, Derek Rae’s lifelong love affair with the brilliant Bundesliga might have been delayed by a few years.

But even a brief conversation with the international football commentator and Massachusettsbased Scot must leave any sane judge convinced that, eventually, the German game would have found a way to get under his skin.

The man known best to younger readers as the voice of FIFA — the game, not the organisation — remains besotted with a league and a fan culture that had him hooked from the off.

Ahead of the Bundesliga’s return, an event guaranteed to attract huge global audiences of footballstarved armchair fans, Rae shared his personal story of instant fandom with Sportsmail.

‘It really goes back to 1974, as a seven-year-old following the World Cup in West Germany, as it was then,’ he revealed. ‘I had a real fascination with everything to do with that World Cup, from the geography of the country to the games — I was engrossed.

‘And, a couple of years later, I began studying German. Our class at school in Aberdeen did German and it quickly became my best — and favourite — subject.

‘Living in Aberdeen, we had a direct radio signal to the station in Hamburg, which meant I could listen to German radio at all hours.

‘I quickly discovered that you could listen to the Bundesliga, so I took an interest in it certainly from the early 1980s on.

‘In midweek, the signal was especially good, so I would listen to the games from the Bundesliga.

‘Later, I did study there and, as a 17 or 18-year-old, I began to go to games regularly — the second division as well as the top division.

‘It’s kind of been part of me throughout. A lot of people gravitated to English football and I had an interest in that, as well as our own Scottish game.

‘But German football was always a part of my footballing life.’

In an increasingly globalised world, an era where it’s possible to watch just about any major league on UK television, plenty have already been hooked by the Bundesliga.

Rae, seeking to explain its popularity, said: ‘I think the main attraction is that it’s less corporate than in other countries.

‘It’s very much still a game for the people, for the fans. Now, of course, the irony is that we have games without the fans. Without question, the fans are one of the big selling points.

‘But I love everything about

German football on matchday. It starts at the railway station where people gather, eating their bratwurst and drinking beer, jumping on the tram, bus or local train to the game. It’s just a very communal experience.

‘That’s obviously not going to be something we have as the Bundesliga comes back. But the football is very dynamic — and it has changed in that respect.

‘When I started watching it, the game was a lot slower. It wasn’t the fast, furious, youthful and dynamic game that we have nowadays.

‘That’s because Germany, as a footballing country, changed a couple of decades ago.

‘They realised they were slightly on the wrong path if they had designs on winning the World Cup again.

‘So it was revitalised with a different model, with younger players. All the clubs got on board with the youth policy, how to develop young players.

‘I think most people would agree that they’ve been more successful on that front than just about any other football country in the world over the last couple of decades. ‘So I think the football style is part of it. And the style is very open, very eye-catching, bold and bright.

‘It’s not negative. There aren’t that many teams who you would say are in there just to be spoilers. ‘In recent years, the counterpressing part of the game has become a big lure for people. I’m not saying it started in Germany — but it was developed to a higher level in Germany.

‘There are teams who play that way. It’s about what they do with the ball when they get it back, rather than having possession for the sake of possession.

‘There are other teams who still value possession above all other qualities. It gives a good balance to the league.’

From the outside looking in, even the Bundesliga box scores of a weekend are entertaining. You tend to get goals. And, as Rae points out, more than the odd shock.

‘You go into any weekend — definitely this weekend — never quite knowing what is going to happen,’ he said. ‘People say Bayern tend to go on and win the title. And they have done over the last few years, for certain.

‘But, apart from that, it’s very hard to predict the outcome of games. I know that because I do a predictor competition every week. I’m supposed to know all about who should beat whom — and I get it wrong more than I get it right!’