Hoffenheim’s Croatia international Josip Šimunic (pictured) came closer to a return in the top 6 of the FTBL ranking of Bundesliga defenders after his side’s 3:0 crushing of struggling FC Nürnberg in league action last Saturday.

The Croatian earned more than 23 rating points in the FTBL system to push his tally up to 81.23 points. He is now second in our ranking of Croatian defenders and has considerably reduced the gap with Spur’s Vedran Corluca (89.21 points), the #1 ranked.

Šimunic is now some 5 rating points from entering the elite group of the German top league. But a return is unlikely in his next appearance: his plank to beat is a challenging 13+ rating points. That return is more likely in the following 3 games, in which he will face much lower planks.