Borussia Moenchengladbach midfielder Marco Reus hit a hat-trick on Saturday to put his side second in the German league, but the attempted suicide of a Bundesliga referee over-shadowed Saturday's matches. The match between Cologne and Mainz was called off 40 minutes before kick-off after match official Babak Rafati, 41, had tried to commit suicide in his hotel room in Cologne before being found.
He is in a critical condition in hospital in Cologne. As a FIFA referee, Rafati had officiated Bundesliga games for six years and, with 84 matches under his belt, is an experienced German league referee. "I am incredibly concerned personally. This affects the entire football community, but I hope he is soon on the road to recovery," said Germany's three-time World Cup referee Markus Merk, an expert for German Sky television. The reason behind Rafati's attempted suicide is unknown, but comes just two years after Germany goalkeeper Robert Enke took his own life on November 10 2009 having battled with depression for years.
The Cologne-Mainz match was cancelled, but in the games which took place, 'Gladbach hammered Bremen 5-0 to go second before Saturday night's key clash between leaders Bayern Munich and defending champions Borussia Dortmund. Reus claimed three goals to leave him with seven in the last three league games and 10 from 13 Bundesliga matches this season.
Premier League side Manchester City and German giants Bayern Munich are just two of the teams interested in signing the rising star who dominated Bremen. Venezuela midfielder Juan Arango and Patrick Herrmann added the other two goals as Bremen, who drop to fifth in the table, were well beaten.
Schalke moved up to third after Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, twice, Germany Under-21 captain Lewis Holtby and Raul scored in the 4-0 win over Nuremberg. The Royal Blues were without both Peru forward Jefferson Farfan and Germany defender Benedikt Hoewedes, who both picked up injuries while on international duty last Tuesday. Ten-man Hanover drop to seventh in the league after they were hammered 4-1 at Wolfsburg as Ivory Coast striker Didier Ya Konan was sent off for unsporting conduct after throwing the ball at Japan's Makoto Hasebe in the 58th minute.
Veteran former Bayern and Juventus midfielder Hasan Salihamidzic scored twice and the victory lifts the 2009 German champions up to 12th in the table. Hertha Berlin were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, whose midfielder Stefan Reisinger hit the equaliser in the 95th minute. Bayer Leverkusen warmed up for Wednesday's visit of Chelsea in the Champions League with a 2-0 win over Kaiserslautern with Michael Ballack getting on the scoresheet.