The football-free summer is now over: 31 days after the promotion/relegation play-off second leg against Hamburger SV, VfB Stuttgart boss Sebastian Hoeneß and his coaching staff held their first training session of the new season. The session, which was open to the public and was watched by approximately 750 VfB fans, began with a warm-up right in front of the spectators in summer temperatures. That was followed by passing drills in a competition format, in which the focus was on quick reactions. The winning team, including Atakan Karazor and Chris Führich, among others, celebrated wholeheartedly at the end of the exercise. There was a match to finish the session off, with the fans cheering every shot at goal. “We’ve got a lot of quality in training and it’s great to see everyone again and to work hard together out on the pitch,” said Waldemar Anton afterwards. “It’s a lot more fun to train together than it is alone.”
Newcomers and returnees
Among the group were summer signings Maximilian Mittelstädt (from Hertha BSC) and Jovan Milosevic (FK Vojvodina), who both donned the red and white of VfB for the first time. “The boys have welcomed me really well,” said Mittelstädt. “We all get along well and I’m really enjoying it here in Stuttgart. I was born and raised in Berlin, so it was time for me to make a change. Moving to VfB was the right step. I’m delighted to be here and I hope that we can all have a great season together.” Roberto Massimo (Académico Viseu FC), Clinton Mola (Blackburn Rovers), Mohamed Sankoh (Vitesse Arnhem) and Wahid Faghir (FC Nordsjaelland) were also all back in Bad Cannstatt after returning from loan spells.
Rest for international players
A number of squad members were not present at the start of pre-season training: Wataru Endo, Hiroki Ito, Josha Vagnoman, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Borna Sosa, Serhou Guirassy, Momo Cissé and Alou Kuol are all still on holiday after being involved in international fixtures last month.