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Every team who has gained a position in the Champions League has been helped by star players. For Hertha Berlin it has been Salomon Kalou who has helped the team to gain a place in the Champions League.

Hertha Berlin might not be in this season, but they have definitely secured a position for themselves in the next season. The home game that was played between them and Ingolstadt led to a winning score of 2-1 for them.

Salomon Kalou and Genki Haraguchi scored the winning goals. As a result, they have been able to move the team to a position ahead of Schalke who is placed fourth. On an Ingolstadt’s side Lukas Hinterseer placed the consolation goal. Not everything was great for the home team, especially when Vedad Ibisevic delivered a header, but it was ruled out as an offside.

Kalou took chances for the team. He went close to the goal post as the first half came to an end. He delivered a header which hit the crossbar on the way over. Hertha’s team, however, took the lead in the second half when Haraguchi came close and volleyed over Marvin Plattenhardt. Kalou meanwhile, made the score 2-0 at the midway of the game. Haraguchi then delivered a goal; it is his 13th goal as an Ivory Coast forward player. Hinterseer tried to bring back the opposing team in the 73rd minute of the game, but his attempt was blocked out successfully.

Even though the guests pushed to get an equalizer result, the home team will remain firm and secured their third place and a chance to get back to Champions League next year. Kalou definitely played an important role in this win and it is expected that he will be focusing on his training to improve his skills further.

It’s been a little over a year since Ivory Coast won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations as they overcame Ghana in a match that had to be decided with a penalty session.

Salomon Kalou helped out his national team in sealing this silverware as he performed in a number of matches but he was mostly used as a substitute player more than anything else.

Kalou had to settle with a few minutes of playing time in certain games and taking into consideration the role that he is playing with Ivory Coast which isn’t that significant, he is starting to think about retiring from performing at the international stage as Kalou wants to focus the remainder of his career by winning titles and matches with his club Hertha BSC.

“I won the Africa Cup of Nations and played in two World Cups. But you have to think about it if it is the right moment to stop. Last year was a tough year and also I was away at the Africa Cup of Nations but I learned a lot. This season I am aiming to score at least 15 goals.” Salomon Kalou said as the Ivorian player stated that he is starting to think about resting his body and playing fewer games from this point on.

Salomon Kalou has been performing with Hertha BSC since 2004 and he hasn’t lifted any significantly big title with the German club and this is another one of the reasons of why Kalou just wants to completely focus in winning games with his club and help them adding titles to their collection and Kalou wants to avoid getting distracted with anything else other than his club.

The contract of Kalou with Hertha BSC expires in 2017 and he wants to work hard to make an impact with the time that is remaining for him with the German outfit.

Hertha Berlin claimed a 2-0 triumph over the 2nd division team Arminia Bielefeld back in August of 2015. This victory was especially important due a number of different reasons.

The main reason on why this triumph was so special for Hertha Berlin is because of the incident which occurred one before this game had kicked off and it involved some shots being fired at the team bus of Hertha.

At the time when the shots were fired, there were no players in the actual bus and nobody inside of the vehicle was injured. After this incident was over, the team had to be escorted with police on the road until eventually arriving to the stadium.

The manager of Hertha Berlin, Michael Preetz stated that the driver of the bus was going from the hotel to the train station at Bielefeld to collect the team and it was in that moment when the event took place but fortunately for the team, nobody was injured.

Going into the actual match, Hertha Berlin had some early chances to score with Jens Hegeler firing a shot which went wide away from the mark.Arminia Bielefeld attempted to find the back of the net before the first half reached it’s end but both sides had to go to their respective dressing rooms with a goal-less draw after 45 minutes of play.

The opening goal of the match arrived through the likes of Salomon Kalou as he scored with a close range shot and Vladimir Darida secured the win at the 88th minute as his team claimed the victory despite having gone through a terrifying day prior to the kick-off of the game.

The draw for the upcoming World Cup 2018 recently took place at Saint Petersburg.

One of the toughest groups to qualify out of will be the Group A, which features two heavyweights in the form of Netherlands and France. Even though the Dutch have been on a rotten run of form since the appointment of Guus Hiddink after the World Cup 2014, the departure of the former Chelsea manager is expected to revive them.Hiddink recently stepped down from his role after failing to turn around the fortunes of the team even with a lot of months at the helm.

Despite this poor form, Didier Deschamps reckons that the Dutchman will be the favourite for qualification from the group as the winners. The former Marseille man may come out with such interviews, but he will be expected to take France to the World Cup without fail. His more important priority will be to perform well in the upcoming Euro 2016, in which France are the hosts. The disadvantage of being the hosts of a major tournament is that teams do not get the opportunity to test themselves in competitive matches. France are hoping to get around this situation by taking advantage of the home support.

The group also includes the likes of Bulgaria, Sweden, Belarus, and Luxembourg.”This is a strong group, compact, with good European nations. Favourites are the Netherlands because they were semi-finalists of the last World Cup in Brazil, where they finished third, but there is also Sweden, Belarus, Bulgaria, which are never easy teams to play. There are certainly easier groups than ours in the European zone.Being seeded, it can be an advantage in certain situations or not. But for sure it would have been better to win these matches in June,” said the French manager.

Salomon Kalou spent 6 years of his playing career performing with the Premier League side Chelsea. This was the largest period of time that he has spent with any club of his career and his time spent in Stamford Bridge was very successful as the Ivorian player managed to lift a number of major titles including: the Champions League and the Premier League.

The veteran attacker is now playing for the German side Hertha BSC but now that the regular season is over, he is taking a break from his usual schedule and Salomon Kalou took the chance to catch up with some of his former Chelsea teammates as met with Frank Lampard at the Yankees Stadium a few weeks ago on June 29.

Frank Lampard is a player of the MLS side, New York City FC as he joined the American team at the beginning of the year in January but he didn’t officially get into the team or start playing with New York City FC until July when the summer transfer window opened.

In Kalou’s first season as a player of Hertha BSC, he went through a campaign where had some ups and downs as the Ivorian forward kick-started his career with his new club by playing a regular spot in Hertha BSC but during his opening month in the team, he was usually offloaded from the pitch in the 2nd half as he struggled to make a real impact with his limited period of time on the playing grounds.

However, as the weeks progressed, Kalou earned his regular spot in Hertha BSC as he was consistently playing and helped out his club in their journey of avoiding the bottom relegation zone of the Bundesliga.

Former Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou says that he is eager to win back his place at Hertha Berlin after having found the motivation to win trophies once again.

The forward has been going through a barren spell in terms of titles over the last few years. He had a huge collection of medals from his time at Chelsea, but more importantly, Kalou has been focusing on regaining a starting spot in the team. After moving to Germany with Berlin, Cologne lost the starting spot towards the end of last year. After having just tasted success at the Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast,Kalou says that he is looking forward to the remainder of the season.

Still only 29 years old, the forward has managed only six goals in 19 appearances for the German outfit. He was part of the Golden generation of Ivory Coast that almost went without a major title before winning the Africa Cup of Nations on penalties. Kalou has been rarely starting matches and he was earlier linked with a return to the Premier League with the likes of West Brom being interested in him. However, this poor form and the lack of regular football could force the Ivory Coast international to stay at Germany for a while.

“I’m feeling really good and I’m ready. I now want to put in a great second half of the season with Hertha.It’s high time we showed what we can do. The win over Mainz was important for all of us and that gives us self-confidence for the challenges ahead.Every player will now want to prove himself to the new coach and I also get a new chance and want to play more.I’ve just won a title and I’ve really got a taste for it. I’m hungry and I want more,” said Kalou.

Salomon Kalou believes that Football is played a bit differently by the Germans and it’s not easy for a new player coming from some other part of the world to adjust to that style straightaway.

Kalou himself is very new to German Football. He has only spent 6 months playing in Bundesliga for Hertha Berlin, but, so far, it hasn’t seemed that he is facing any sort of difficulty. He has been amongst the goals in whatever few appearances that he has made.

The forward himself, however, does not feel that he is totally comfortable playing the German way.

Having played in England and Holland for a long period of time, he is used to the conventional type of Football in which the forwards don’t worry about the defence at all. They just go all out on attack.

According to Kalou, in Germany, even if you are a forward, it’s your responsibility to try and help the back line players if the ball is in the possession of the opposition team.

The Ivorian was quoted as saying, “At the start, it was all good, but, then, after some time I realized that may be, I would have to do some adjustments because they play it slightly differently over here. You have to contribute a little bit to the defence as well.”

When asked if he would have liked to have started more at Hertha during the summer, Kalou said, “Yes, for sure. But, I am happy with the fact that there are 5 goals to my name already.
I know I could have more if I had played more, but, you know you can’t blame anyone.”

Hertha is out of top 10 in the Bundesliga table right now with only 18 points in 17 games.

Salomon Kalou, the new signing of Hertha Berlin, wants to take his side to DFB-Pokal glory in the ongoing season.
Kalou, the 29-year old forward, has been going great guns for Berlin since his joining. He’s already had 3 goals under his belt in the 5 games that he has featured in the German league.
His match winning strike versus VfL Wolfsburg the previous month was sensational and then, he scored a couple more versus Stuttgart too the other day.
Kalou is presently on international break, but, he is going to return from that pretty soon after which he has to play two Bundesliga matches, but, the forward has his eyes set on the Pokal fixture versus Bielefeld.
Kalou has achieved Cup glory with his past clubs as well. He won FA Cup with Chelsea in England quite a few times. So, he has been there before and he wants to get there again with Berlin.
Speaking in an interview last evening, Kalou said, “It’s my dream to see my team in the title round and we are not too far away from that. You see if we beat Arminia, it will just be a matter of three matches. Of course, we can’t underestimate anyone, but, we are very confident with what we have got.”
When asked about him being in great form at his new club, the Ivory Coast International, who has been a European Cup winner as well, said, “I don’t think I am right up there as of now. There are things missing in my game still, but, it’s all about time when you make your way to a new place. As the days go by, you improve.”
Kalou previously used to play for the French top tier club Lille OSC.

The French side Lille signed Salomon Kalou back in 2012 and so far the former Chelsea player has made over 65 league appearances for Lille but Kalou is believed to be interested in making a return to the Premier League. A few days ago the manager of Lille, Rene Girard admitted to the media that the relationship between him and Kalou is not as healthy as it used to be some time ago as the Ivorian forward has even recently been skipping and missing out from pre-season training matches.

It still remains undecided as to what club he would prefer to join in the Premier League but it’s evident that his wish is to leave Lille. Everton, Liverpool and Arsenal are some of the English clubs which are being more associated and linked with Kalou.

Lille is interested in signing the Ghanaian attacker of Lorient Jordan Ayew and they could offload Salomon Kalou as a way to create just enough funds to sign their desired summer target. Kalou has a price tag in the region of £3m which means that just about any top club in the Premier League won’t have to break the bank to sign him.

The Italian club As.Roma has displayed their intention and desire in signing Salomon Kalou but the former Chelsea player is hoping he can receive an offer from a club in the Premier League as his wish is to make a return in England.

In the course of the January transfer window Arsenal launched a late offer hoping to sign Kalou but a deal was never completed and Arsene Wenger might still be interested in securing the services of the Ivorian forward. The Premier League is only a few weeks away from kicking off as time is ticking down for Kalou and if no offers are launched for the former Chelsea player, his desire to make a return to the Premier League might not be fulfilled.

Arsenal’s ambition to land Salomon Kalou will continue on despite already having attempted to sign the Ivorian on 2 occasions since last summer. Wenger launched an offer towards Lille during the January transfer window hoping to sign the former Chelsea player but it got rejected, however that will not stop the Frenchman on preparing another bid.

Kalou is aware of Arsenal’s interest as he revealed his intentions of returning to the Premier League and that the only reason why the initial bid of Arsenal was rejected is because the Ivorian player wants to help Lille finish the season on a positive note.

“If I have the chance to go back, I would love to, because it’s the most exciting league in the world so I would like to try it again. I have to focus on doing well here and then the World Cup is coming, so I have to focus on that, too’’.

“I’m having a great time here. We want to qualify for the Champions League; we want to win the French Cup. I need to keep fit and go to the World Cup with a lot of ambition because there is a good opportunity for the Ivory Coast there.” Kalou stated as he responded to question concerning his near future.
Salomon Kalou wants to focus on the remaining matches which are left in the French league, Ligue 1 as he wants Lille to finish in the top 3 spots.

Arsenal’s chase to secure the services of a high profile attacker is far from over as they failed to sign Luis Suarez, Alvaro Morata and Gonzalo Higuain. Kalou might be another viable option considering that Arsenal will not have to break the bank in order to sign him.