Third oldest team in 2024/25
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In the 2-2 draw against 1. FC Heidenheim, Werder talent Patrice Covic was in the starting line-up for the first time since matchday 2. The 18-year-old midfielder benefited from Senne Lynen’s short-term absence because he was becoming a father for the second time and was preferred to Leonardo Bittencourt. His coach Horst Steffen praised Covic highly.
“He deserves to play from the start again. He’s too good to give him little playing time,” said Steffen. Covic played in all seven Bundesliga games, but had to be content with short appearances after the arrival of Cameron Puertas. So far he has accumulated 202 minutes in the upper house, which was rewarded with an increase of 2.5 million to 4 million euros in the latest market value update. This makes the Berlin-born Croatian U21 national player one of the ten most valuable Bundesliga talents up to the age of 18 (statistics).
Peter Niemeyer is also happy about the development of his own plant. “Patrice has a high running volume, cleverness and knows how to move. He makes himself playable and is clever in the spaces,” explained the head of licensed football to “Bild”. “The competition in his position is very high. And yet Patrice fits in seamlessly when he comes into play.” On Saturday he played in the attacking midfield position, although the competition in the three-man line with Puertas, Samuel Mbangula, Romano Schmid, Justin Njinmah and Marco Grüll is particularly strong.
Alongside Karim Coulibaly, with whom Covic won the U19 DFB Cup, he is one of the big winners under Steffen. After Eintracht Frankfurt (⌀ age: 24.1 years), Werder Bremen is the youngest team in the Bundesliga with an average age of 24.4 years per game. Last season, when Ole Werner was in charge of the team, the Hanseatic League was the oldest team in the league after VfL Bochum and FC Bayern (27.6) at 27 years old. After the draw against Heidenheim, the Green-Whites are in 12th place in the Bundesliga with eight points.