Cisse's Goal Was Soccer Made in Germany Papiss Cisse's goal against Chelsea Wednesday night was many things; a beautiful first touch, a wonderful turn and an emphatic volley in to the top-right corner of Petr Cech's net. But it signified a change in the make up of the game. Cisse's goalscoring comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed his career before his move to St James Park - the Senegalese forward had a goal ratio of just over one in every other games for his Bundesliga team, Freiburg - but the seamless adjustment from Bundesliga to Premier League has gone far to reinforce the words on many fan's lips; the Bundesliga is quickly gaining on England's Premier League. Transition, as a process of change, is inevitable in soccer. With an ecosystem contrived of hundreds of small associations and leagues; the landscape of soccer shifts and changes from season to season to the stern request of thousands of variables. Like diffusion, the process which enables simple life on this planet, money and talent flow from one league to the next, to the sport's delight. Throughout the past generation we have seen Italy's Serie A at its peak throughout the 1990"s and early 2000"s, to eventually be overcome by the exploitative marketing of the financially absurd Premier League which calls its claim to the Iron throne of the beautiful game. Until now, that is. For all the Premier League's excitement and bold claims throughout the years, it was always built upon the foundations of profit margins and capitalism's ability to demand each man look after his own interests first. From its bright birth in 1992 as a sports franchise, hoping to model and emulate the success of the N.F.L., it now relies upon foreign billionaires and audiences from the other side of the world to keep its margins high. In contrast, Germany's Bundesliga has always been a safe haven for purists. Based on a sound and prudent financial mind-set and its priorities firmly focused on the fans, the league has continued to grow in not only a financial sense, but in terms of admiration and quality on the field. Yet never before has the Bundesliga, as a league, held such an influence over the fortune of European and world soccer. Now the league with the highest average attendance, and second only to the N.F.L. in all of sports. The new TV deal signed by Sky Sports this year is worth a reported $826 million per year till 2017 - a 52 percent increase on the last deal. If the Premier League demands all the glitz and glamor of Broadway, then the Bundesliga can lay claim to a financial and development powerhouse worthy of Wall Street. A great team may last for three or five years, indulging in beautiful soccer, stunning moments of magic, and memories that will forever be associated with the club. But a great league is something different - it is a movement, a progression, a revolution; a great team may dominate a sport, but a great league can change it entirely. Bayern Munich's unexpected victory over Real Madrid in last week's Champions League semifinals not only depicted a team with great courage and organization, but a soccer club that believed it deserved its spot in the final. This sentiment echoed through a Leverkusen team that topped its group above Bayern's challengers, Chelsea, before it was knocked out to a then-mighty Barcelona. To add to this German assault on European favor, was the exploits of Bundesliga teams in Europe's second tier continental competition this season. Despite its unfair criticism, the Europa League is a fair indication of a league's strength in depth, with a competition largely consisting of fallen league leaders from the Champions League, and midtable teams, hungry for cup success. Both Schalke and Hannover made it to the quarterfinals this year, unfortunately going out to eventual finalists Athletic Bilbao and Atlético Madrid. Of course, such European excursions are not the only strings to the Bundesliga's mighty bow. A league can only claim to be as good as the sum of its parts, and in terms of a soccer league, that means the quality of players on show. The German national squad - the one team that most can foresee overcoming Spain in this summer's Euro 2012 - is almost entirely composed of home-based players, with only Miroslav Klose at Lazio, and Mesut Özil; Sami Khedira at Real Madrid exempt from that pattern. A young squad it may be, but a young squad returning as European champions may well be the final line in the Bundesliga's case as Europe's new premier league. It is still early, and things may not go Bayern's way on May 19, or Germany's this summer, but both teams are where they are today because of the continued growth of the league in which they depend upon. All this while Papiss Cisse and Newcastle are girding for Sunday's Premier League showdown with Manchester City. Stefan Bienkowski is a Bundesliga correspondent for a number of publications, including his own, Bundesliga Football. Follow him on Twitter.