Freiburg leadership duo sums up
“We have had an extremely successful year, probably the most successful year for SC Freiburg so far,” said sports director Jochen Saier club’s own interview the last season in which fifth place and thus international business were achieved again and the Breisgauer team advanced to the Europa League round of 16 for the first time and to the cup semi-finals for the second time in a row. “That cannot be valued highly enough,” said Saier, whose protégés have long since come into the international spotlight. For the sports director this meant: “It was a transfer period with special circumstances.”
The transfer window was actually special; Freiburg recorded record income of 41.8 million euros. On the expenditure side, however, the SC held back and invested 7.5 million euros in new players – 13th place in the Bundesliga comparison. For those responsible, the focus was on keeping the team together overall. With Kevin Schade (21), who was previously on loan, and goalkeeper Mark Flekken (30), only two top performers left the sports club.
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“Some say keeping a team together is just as big a task as putting together a new one,” explained sports director Klemens Hartenbach. “Of course we try to make the team a little better every year. But you don’t just get better through new additions. You also get better as your boys develop further and then get more playing time. Kenneth Schmidt showed that last season, as did Noah Weißhaupt before or – alongside Noah Atubolu – now Merlin Röhl at the start of the season.”
Schmidt (21), Atubolu (21) and Weißhaupt (21) were able to be signed in the summer, as was the sought-after central defender Philipp Lienhart (27). “The fact that Philipp Lienhart has also decided to stay with us is not at all a given after the long time he has been playing at SC Freiburg and given his qualities. “For us, his extension is equivalent to a new signing,” emphasized Saier.
SC is going the Freiburg route – Müller is a very important transfer
After Flekken’s departure, the SC decided on homegrown Atubolu as the new number one. “Because it corresponds to the Freiburg way and he deserves it,” said Saier. Hartenbach added: “But sporting quality is always our top priority. Noah has demonstrated this over many years in our youth teams, the U23 and also in the junior national teams, not least as the current U21 national goalkeeper. We know it was also a brave decision. But it was clear that we would enable him to take this step if we trusted him to do so.” This is necessary for the Freiburg path, said Saier: “If we don’t trust the young players with this quality trained in the club, they can’t “We can’t develop further here and take the next steps.”
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As a more experienced man, Freiburg provided Atubolu with Florian Müller (25) from VfB Stuttgart, who played 31 games for the sports club in 2020/21 on loan from 1. FSV Mainz 05 and replaced the injured Flekken. “This was a very important transfer for us. It is very difficult to find a goalkeeper who meets all the desired requirements for this role. Sporty, but also humanly in relation to the goalkeeping team and the whole team. And I’m also happy that Benjamin Uphoff has extended his contract and is still part of our goalkeeper team,” said Hartenbach.
In addition to Müller and returnee Maximilian Philipp (29; on loan from VfL Wolfsburg), SC Freiburg only brought in striker Junior Adamu from Red Bull Salzburg for 6 million euros, who missed the start of the season due to patellar tendon syndrome. “We are very pleased that he has chosen SC Freiburg. Junior is an Austrian national player and, at 22 years old, is still a young, extremely talented offensive player. “Hopefully he will be able to show that here too,” said Hartenbach. Adamu came on as a substitute for the first time in the 2-4 win against BVB last weekend.
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Overall, the Freiburg management duo is satisfied with the composition of the squad. “I think we are once again very variably positioned in all parts of the team. The team harmonized well as a group last season and was extremely successful. As far as the most recent transfer period was concerned, we therefore wanted to do the best possible for the overall structure,” said Saier.
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