Status: 23.07.2025 11:40 a.m.
FC St. Pauli is preparing for the upcoming Bundesliga season in the training camp in Flachau in Austria in the training camp until Sunday. With a strongly changed squad, the Kiezkicker sweat for the big goal of relegation – and show new qualities.
“Did I Tell You To Walk?” St. Pauli’s goalkeeper coach Sven van der Jeiggt roars as usual at a volume as if he were standing next to a starting plane. But the message is clear: in Flachau it is not going, but running, racing, jumping.
The second -soundest voice on the square with a picturesque mountain panorama in the background belongs to coach Alexander Blessin, paired with the loud whistles typical of him. And if athletic coach Karim Rashwan is supposed to put pressure on the professionals in a passport, then he does it with such a vehemence that striker Oladapo Afolayan warns: “Karim, that’s an exercise for us, not for you!”
St. Pauli in the training camp in Austria is pure intensity. The Enns, the ice -cold Gebirgsbach, which flows between the hotel and training square, is repeatedly used by the players as an ice -sun. The mountain panorama may look like vacation – for Afolayan and Co. it is certainly not.
“Runner” of the 2024/2025 Bundesliga season
But Blessin and his coaching team know why St. Pauli stayed in the Bundesliga in the previous season. The “running championship” on the Beletage meant 4,091.3 kilometers. The reward was the second best defense of the league to Bayern Munich, the investment was endurance, strength and fitness. All of this does not exist, St. Pauli is working back in Austria. But that with a new face.
Good handles in the changed squad
The Hamburgers recorded 13 departures, including four, which really hurt: left -back Philipp Treu, striker Morgan Guilavogui and Eigenwächs Elias Saad have aroused desires at other clubs – and washed it into the cash register. Noah Weißhaupt also “had to” back to Freiburg after the loan, although St. Pauli would have liked to commit him.
There are eight newcomers to this. Some young players who are to be developed, like the 20 -year -old central defender Jannik Robatsch, who comes from the Austrian Bundesliga. And some professionals whose names were hardly familiar with the obligation. But it is indicated that sports director Andreas Bornemann and his team could have done very good handles.
As in the case of Arkadiusz Pyrka, full-back and Polish junior international. Ricky -Jade Jones, the “fastest footballer in Europe” -at least as far as the measured sprints are concerned in the pre -season -comes from the third English league, but was injured in the shoulder test, was operated on and will be missing for longer. Mathias Pereira Lage, foreign strikers from the French Champions League participant Stade Brest impressed in the two latest test games.
Joel Chima Fujita from the Belgian table-14. Sint -Truidense should actually only have been known to football tasters – or rather known, because the son of a Japanese and a Nigerian not only shows a fantastic speed of action on the ball, but also committed and loudly – with a very high voice – St. Pauli’s offensive. Three international matches for Japan, Japanese champion, players in the Asian Champions League and captain of the Olympic national team adorn the vita of the 23-year-old.
In addition, there is center forward Andréas Hountondji, a large, massive target player in the center. A profile that trainer Blessin has wanted to occupy for a year, but so far he hadn’t found the right player for it.
And then there is also full -back Louis Oppie, who is supposed to fill the big gap that Philipp left loyal to the back left. On paper a difficult task for a 23-year-old from the third division. However, the bleached, tattooed and doner-loving oppie not only had the potential for fan favorite, but also in a furious DFB Cup season with Bielefeld with Bielefeld, among other things, the first division clubs Leverkusen, Werder Bremen, Freiburg and Union Berlin from the competition and showed that he is not afraid of Bundesliga clubs.
One almost has to be counted as a newcomer, although he has been there since January: Midfield cleaner James Sands is fit again after his broken leg to Hamburg.
Test games: first embarrassment, then new speed
St. Pauli, who was a preparatory game at regional league Drochtersen/Assel, 0-1. A embarrassment that obviously shouldn’t repeat itself. Because a little more than a week later, the neighborhood club showed a completely different face in the training camp. The Danish first division team Silkeborg (4: 1) already felt this in Malente, although the Danes were right before the start of the season and not in the first third of the preparation.
In Flachau it went on like this: second division club Karlsruhe is on paper for three weeks, but was overwhelmed with St. Paulis Pressing, creativity and attention, new: speed. Fujita and the extremely active Mathias Pereira situation were particularly impressed.
Afolayan is also a positive surprise. Immediately after the last game of the season, he had complained to the journalists about the system, trainer and his playing shares, hardly anyone could imagine the English foreign striker. Blessin expected an apology to the team for the new season. It is not known whether it was internal. What is certain, however, is that Afolayan plays sovereign preparation, with goals, templates and the often lack of passion in defending. And so even the coach smiled with a smile after all the criticism in Austria that he really had to praise “Dapo”.
Irvine has to fight for his regular place
The bottom line remains: St. Pauli is in an impressive early form. Captain Jackson Irvine got back into running training in Austria, including his foot injury, including surgery. For the first time, the charismatic Australian really has to fight for his regular place on the double six, because the quality in width is more high than ever. At the beginning of the season, Irvine will not be fit, but explained apart from the training zone: “I prefer to miss the first five games than the last five.”
Starting in class, but by no means utopian
St. Pauli’s destination in the Bundesliga is and remains the relegation. It is perhaps even harder than in the pre -season: With the city rival HSV and 1. FC Köln, two clubs have come up, which the Bundesliga claim as a natural habitat.
The advantage of FC St. Pauli: Despite the many changes in the squad, the system is clear and practiced. Coach Blessin and many regular players go to their second Bundesliga season and should not pay as much tuition again at the beginning as ago.
If in the desire to defend a little more effectiveness on the offensive – in 2024/25 the Kiezkicker recorded the fewest gates of the league – plus dangerousness in standard situations, saving table position 15 despite the hard and generally financially better off competition is anything but utopian.