After Werder Bremen was promoted again, Leonardo Bittencourt was elected to the Green-White team council and could have even become captain of the northern club. But the midfielder refused. Bittencourt has now revealed why he did this and also emphasized how important going into the second division was for Bremen.
Leonardo Bittencourt has become the absolute leader at Werder Bremen. Therefore, before the start of the season, he was also a candidate for the captaincy, which became vacant after the departure of Ömer Toprak.
However, the 28-year-old declined. “I’d rather be a mouthpiece internally than having to show the bandage. That’s why it wasn’t an issue for me and I told the boys that they didn’t have to vote for me,” Bittencourt revealed to the “kicker”.
Already in his youth it was said about him: “You could be captain, but you open your mouth anyway,” Bittencourt looked back. In any case, “the five players from the team council are all to some extent the captains,” said the offensive man, who, together with his colleagues, ultimately chose Marco Friedl as captain.
Bittencourt: Had “other thoughts” about BVB
Bittencourt was on the pitch with the Austrian in the historic win against BVB last weekend. A few days later, he can now objectively classify the 3-2 win. “If you play a game like this where you’re dominant and better, but you’re still 2-0 down, not everything can have gone well in terms of defence, including offensive actions,” said Bittencourt, admitting: “My thoughts go the 0: 2 were actually others.”
Regardless of the victory at BVB, Bittencourt now feels more comfortable in the German upper house than he did in the second league. “Maybe I didn’t manage it mentally as well as in the Bundesliga. They play different football there,” the 28-year-old looked back.
“You would have expected more from me, myself, too. It’s nicer that things are going better in the Bundesliga anyway, because it’s more fun there than in the second division,” stressed Bremen’s number ten.
“Reset button” did Werder Bremen good
However, he basically felt that going into the second division was a “reset button” that gave the club a new face.
After the successful start to the season, he attested to the quality of his team: “Of course we can see that we can keep up and that it will be difficult to beat us if we pull ourselves together. This approach must become normal for us – and we are showing that right now Well”.