Bayern had expressed confidence that the Dutch striker would head to Bavaria but when they refused to meet Manchester United's asking price Real Madrid captured his signature for a fee of around 16 million euros (20.5 million dollars).

Bayern's general manager Uli Hoeness insisted that the club had chosen to drop out of the race for Van Nistelrooy.

"If we had offered what United wanted, we would have got the player. But we would have had to do things that go against Bayern's philosophy," Hoeness said.

The free transfer of the biggest-name German player of the moment, Michael Ballack, from Bayern to cash-rich English Premiership champions Chelsea has diminished the star quality of the Bundesliga.

In a summer when Europe's biggest clubs picked off the cream of Juventus's squad after they were relegated for match-fixing, few foreign stars made the move to Germany.

SV Hamburg landed one of the more exciting talents in European football, Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart, ahead of last season, but failed this summer in a bid to recruit Milan Baros, the Czech international striker who was top scorer at Euro 2004.

Baros opted to stay at Premiership side Aston Villa.

Hamburg did however succeed in bringing in Vincent Kompany, the highly rated 20-year-old Anderlecht centre-back, for eight million euros.

Borussia Dortmund may have got one of the deals of the summer by landing Alexander Frei -- whose goals helped Switzerland to the World Cup last 16 -- from French club Rennes in a deal worth four million euros.

Schalke 04 pepped up their front line with the capture of Peter Lovenkrands, the Danish striker who scored 18 times for Scottish giants Rangers last season, and Werder Bremen added Brazilian midfielder Diego to their squad from FC Porto and brought in out-of-favour Cameroonian defender Pierre Wome from Inter Milan.

Otherwise, most of the summer transfers in Germany involved moves between Bundesliga clubs. Belgian centre-back Daniel Van Buyten swapped Hamburg's colours for Bayern's with Peruvian striker Paolo Guerrero going in the opposite direction.

Dortmund meanwhile bought Nelson Valdez, the Paraguayan striker, from Bremen to partner Frei.

German clubs however argue they are putting their faith in the homegrown product.

Nine of the 11 players who took Germany to the semifinals of the World Cup on home soil just a few weeks ago will be lining up for Bundesliga clubs when the 2006-2007 season kicks off next week.

Only Ballack, and goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, who remains at Premiership club Arsenal, will play abroad.

Miroslav Klose, the top scorer at the World Cup, has said he is staying with Werder Bremen -- at least for another season -- while Bayern bought Lukas Podolski, the 21-year-old forward who collected the Best Young Player award at the World Cup, from relegated FC Cologne.