On the way home from his holiday in Mallorca, Oliver Baumann heard about the big bang at TSG Hoffenheim. How the goalkeeper and captain is dealing with it.
Mallorca until Monday, Kitzbühel since Tuesday: TSG goalkeeper Oliver Baumann. IMAGO/Nordphoto
Late on Monday morning, a German national goalkeeper, who was quite taken aback, stood at the Palma de Mallorca airport. At least, Oliver Baumann describes the moment when he was Resignation of sports director Alexander Rosen at TSG Hoffenheim found out: “I was more than surprised, shocked. It felt unreal.”
Message at the airport while waiting for the return flight
Baumann received a message from a friend at the airport. The goalkeeper was waiting with his wife for the flight to Germany, to travel to the Training camp in Kitzbühel to travel. Just like national striker Maximilian Beier, the 34-year-old had an extended vacation after participating in the EURO.
Now Baumann is directly in demand as captain. “We as the captain trio and leading players should keep this completely away from the youngsters,” he says, taking responsibility for himself and his deputies Andrej Kramaric and Grischa Prömel. Professionals such as Florian Grillitsch and Pavel Kaderabek are also in demand now; both were part of the team council last season.
“We have to do our job and be professionals”
But how does a professional deal with such a decision, especially when it has been made at an exciting time? In the middle of the transfer window, in the middle of what is probably the most important phase of preparation. “You have to accept it,” Baumann says the obvious. “The next thoughts were: ‘We have to come closer together as a team and concentrate on ourselves. You have to ignore that and hope that someone will take over the work soon.'” Frank Kramer, the current head of youth development, will temporarily take over.
In Baumann’s eyes, it is now up to the team and their performances to restore calm as quickly as possible: “That depends on us now. We have to do our job and be professionals.” That is the focus, but the question is whether it can be completely ignored? With Pirmin Schwegler, who is also leaving the club and who is likely to join Eintracht Frankfurt in the medium term, Baumann himself still played together.
Quality and width are still required for the goalkeeper
But Baumann is professional enough to immediately focus on the essentials again: “Those responsible must be aware that we hardly have any time left and that we have a long season ahead of us with many games, which have also been added by the new Europa League format.” For Pellegrino Matarazzo’s team, The new Swiss league system will create eight instead of six games in the group phase.
“The team would benefit from a bit more quality plus a certain breadth. You do need guys who can play in the Bundesliga straight away. Frank Kramer knows that too,” Baumann expresses his demands, but adds Solomonic: “We don’t have a bad team even without new signings.” The team needs to isolate itself a little from the issue. “If in the end it’s the case that the team stays as it is, then that’s how we’ll approach it.”
Kabak and Jurasek are missing, Berisha is not yet fit to play
Test matches of TSG Hoffenheim
The number three of the German national team sees the squad as basically well prepared, in fact only one professional of regular caliber has left, Wout Weghorst, who was loaned out last season. John Brooks, who is currently out of a club, lost his place to Tim Drexler. However, after conceding 66 goals in 2023/24, TSG urgently needs reinforcements in defense for the coming season. especially since Ozan Kabak has torn his cruciate ligament.
This also includes David Jurasek after his forearm fracture a few weeks. And: Mergim Berisha, who acts as an “internal newcomer” after his cruciate ligament tear and is likely to be the first candidate for Weghorst’s role, does not seem to be fit to play yet. He watched the 2:2 against the “Canaries” from the stands. Like Baumann, who was at the airport in Mallorca the day before.
2024-07-31 14:19:42
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