“I’m halfway in shape”
Returns the square by Mertesacker
18.06.2025 – 9:54 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Per Mertesacker stands in front of his football comeback-for a Lower Saxony district league team. The background is special.
When TSV Pattensen celebrates its 135th anniversary on June 27, there is a reunion with a prominent returnee: by Mertesacker, the club where he had started football will appear in a test game against Hannover. For the professionals from the 2nd Bundesliga, it is also the first game under the new coach Christian Titz.
“It is a great honor to put the shoes for the club again, where I started at the age of four,” said Mertesacker in advance. The 2014 world champion wants to play from the start and hopes to hold out for around 30 minutes. After that, the TSV players should be in the foreground. The club had recently relegated from the Landesliga and is now starting in the district league. “It shouldn’t be a Mertesacker show, but a great experience for the TSV,” emphasized the 40-year-old.
Mertesacker has been head of the youth academy in London since his career end in 2018 at Arsenal. There he is also involved in day -to -day business: he regularly supports the U16 training and recently completed some additional units. “I’m halfway in shape,” said Mertesacker.
However, it excludes a comeback on a larger scale. “My center of life is London,” he said. “The family is here, I only come to Germany for ZDF.” Mertesacker has been working as a TV expert since 2018, regularly for ZDF since 2020.
Mertesacker’s relationship with Hannover 96 goes far back: at the age of eleven, he switched from TSV Pattensen to the Bundesliga club at the time and stayed for eleven years before going to Werder Bremen. He is still a member there – “since July 1, 1995”, as he noted. He also has a clear opinion about the new 96 coach Titz: “He stands for a clear football and a clear attitude. I’m looking forward to it.”