Cruciate ligament tear
©IMAGO
The season is over for Werder Bremen’s young striker Keke Topp. On Thursday, the Hanseatic League had to announce that the 22-year-old had torn his cruciate ligament. The injury happened on the same day in training. “It’s bitter news for us, but especially for Keke. We will support him with all the means at our disposal to accompany him on his long journey,” emphasized Peter Niemeyer, head of professional football at Werder.
Topp once again mostly didn’t get beyond the joker role at Werder this season. In his second season at the Weser, the former Schalke player made 13 substitutions, contributing one goal and one assist. The Bremervörde-born professional was only part of the starting eleven seven times.
Topp was not used at all in the current championship round seven times, including the last Bundesliga game in Wolfsburg, in which Bremen achieved a liberating 1-0 victory. Topp, who left the Werder youth team for Schalke in 2021 and was brought back by the green-whites for 2 million euros in 2024, also appeared twice for the second team this season, scoring two goals and one assist.
Werder are running out of strikers – Njinmah is proving himself as a number nine
Werder’s Bundesliga team is now running out of strikers. Winter newcomer Jovan Milosevic (22) has been missing in the last three games, summer loanee Victor Boniface (25) has been out for a while due to cartilage damage and will no longer be an issue for the rest of the season. In the 1-0 win in Wolfsburg, Justin Njinmah (25) occupied the center of the attack and scored the winning goal. As a joker for him, coach Daniel Thioune brought in storm talent Salim Musah (20), as he did a week earlier in the 2-0 home defeat against Mainz.
“The coach sees me more on the outside,” Njinmah recently commented on his use in the nine position. He revealed: “I generally prefer to play at the top. That was also an issue between Daniel and me before the game. But I told him: ‘Trust me, I can play as a striker’. After the game I said to Daniel: ‘You see’.”
