Responds to Andrich’s criticism
Pablo Thiam, head of the youth department at Hertha BSC since July 2021, would like to train more of his own talents for the capital club’s professional team and rely less on expensive external recruits. “That is the ideal case and what we have as a dream. Everything the academy does is coordinated with Fredi (sports manager Bobic; ed.). He supports us in the best possible way,” said Thiam in an interview with the Swiss news portal “watson”.
“In the long term we want to get a core of young players who were trained at our academy back into the professional team,” said the former Guinean international. There are currently nine players from the youth team in Hertha’s extended professional squad. Kevin-Prince Boateng and Maximilian Mittelstädt have by far the most league appearances (to the statistics).
Boateng to Andrich: Most valuable professionals from the Hertha youth
Thiam can only partially understand the criticism of Bayer Leverkusen’s Robert Andrich, who played for the Berliners until the beginning of 2015 before making his way into professional football via Dynamo Dresden, Wehen Wiesbaden and 1. FC Heidenheim. “People always say that the youth work at Berlin’s Hertha is one of the best in Germany. But only a few players really make it to the top,” said Andrich on “TAG24” last January.
Thiam now said: “There are players in every club who didn’t make the step into the professional team and then made their professional debut in another club. With his skills, Robert Andrich embodies a typical Berlin player. I can’t judge what was wrong with him, because I haven’t been here yet. But in his place I would be more grateful because in the end he made the leap via detours.”
Thiam: Bundesliga scouts keep an eye on Hertha’s talents
The fact that talents leave the club again and again is obvious in view of the “incredibly large” competition in Berlin, according to Thiam. “There are many clubs here that play in the youth Bundesliga. In addition, almost all clubs in Germany have scouts here who try to pick up youngsters from Berlin for their clubs very early on.” The publicly accessible training grounds at the Olympic Stadium exacerbate the situation. “The lads are presented there on a silver platter and as soon as they are good they are approached by other clubs. We have to make sure that the players stay anyway.”
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Thiam highlighted Hertha’s investments in structure and personnel, and he also pointed out the Bundesliga debuts of several youngsters in the recent past. “There is only one reason why players leave us. Money. We have set very clear limits for our young players. I know the numbers that other clubs are willing to pay. We can’t keep up with that. You have to live with that, but there are also many players who stay with us and make the leap. There are consulting agencies that have over ten players under contract with us. If I make an exception, other players will also ask for more money,” said the ex-professional.
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