Chris Moller
A swarm of young talents, combined with seasoned pros, have propelled 1.FC Nurnberg to the brink of European qualification, but with the season’s end fast approaching, many players’ futures are still up in the air.
Kids seem to be dominating 2010/11’s Bundesliga. While Jürgen Klopp’s teenage charges are running riot at the top of the table with Borussia Dortmund, a little further down the standings several other sides are reaping the benefits of a decision to focus on young talent too.
One of these clubs, Franconian side 1.FC Nurnberg – or ‘the Club’ as they are affectionately known – are amongst the biggest surprises of this Bundesliga season. Last year, the Frankenstadion outfit had to rely on a relegation playoff win to retain their top flight status, but a haul of 20 points from 10 games in 2011 (only bettered by Bayer Leverkusen) has taken the Club to sixth place and the brink of European qualification.
Key players have been 20-year-old midfield dynamo Ilkay Gündogan, 22-year-old striker and club topscorer Julian Schieber, and attacking all-rounder Mehmet Ekici, who has just turned 21. This trio have been dubbed ‘the Magic Triangle’. Gündogan in particular has earned praise, with club captain Andreas Wolf tipping the all-action box-to-box midfielder for greater things than Real Madrid’s Mesut Özil, and the starlet is in line to be the first Nurnberg player to represent Germany since 1994.
Achievements like this don’t come overnight, of course. Sporting director Martin Bader has excelled in his remit of attracting players with right profile to the club, and credit is also due to former coach Michael Oenning; in early 2009, Oenning cherry-picked the then 18-year-old Gündogan from the youth team of his former club, VfL Bochum.
Bader and current boss Dieter Hecking have continued the focus on youth. This term, Hecking has handed debuts to fully eight players, including midfield powerhouse Almog Cohen and strong defender Philipp Wollscheid (both 22). “We show [the youngsters] that they can play for us and this year we have excellent arguments. Jens Hegeler, Mehmet Ekici and Ilkay Gündogan are regulars in their early twenties and we have the next generation waiting”, said Hecking. “18-year-olds get their games. That’s what we have to offer. Not everyone can take the straight route to a top five club. Here, they can play 50 games in two years and then move on, instead of playing only 10 games at a bigger club”.
And the Club’s work has not gone unnoticed throughout the country as a whole, with Matthias Sammer, sporting director at the German FA, commenting “the work at 1.FC Nurnberg is excellent. There are Nurnberg players in almost all the national youth teams. It’s no coincidence that they are so good, because they have planned for this”.
But not everything is rosy at the nine-time German champions, with the future of a large number of key players up in the air. The ‘Magic Triangle’ could well be split up come the summer. Club topscorer Schieber is on loan from VfB Stuttgart and will not be allowed to stay unless the Swabians go down (which is still a very real prospect). Ekici, Nurnberg’s main provider with 10 assists this season, is also a loanee, this time from Bayern Munich, and the Allianz Arena side could well want the set piece specialist back. And neither Nurnberg nor Gündogan will be able to turn down Manchester United or Dortmund should they, as has been rumoured, come knocking.
Captain Andreas Wolf’s contract is also up this summer, and the defender has long hesitated to commit. The 28-year-old may still come around, though; but fan favourite Marek Mintal’s deal also runs out in a few months’ time.
Former Hannover coach Hecking’s position is also fairly open, too. The 46-year-old keeping the club in the Bundesliga this term has triggered an automatic extension for next season, but it is unclear if he wants to stay much longer beyond that. A father of five, his family still live in Hannover, 300 miles north of Nurnberg.
To keep the set-up on and off the field as intact as possible, the Club are crossing their fingers and hoping for a strong finish to the current season, but this will prove tricky. Of their seven remaining games, four are against teams sitting above the Franconians in the table: Bayern, Mainz, Dortmund, and Hannover.
With this in mind, the Club remain sensible about their ambitions. While Nurnberg will naturally try to secure European qualification, the team will also continue rely on young talent in the future. “This isn’t to be a one-off. The laurels are there for a reason but we shouldn’t be backslapping ourselves for too long. We need more talent”, said Hecking.
Highly-rated Saarbrücken and Germany Under-20 midfielder Manuel Zeitz already has an oral agreement to join in the summer, while sporting director Bader is also keeping tabs on strikers Tomas Pekhart (Sparta Prague, 21) and Sven Schipplock (Stuttgart, 22) to fill the void that Schieber will likely leave by the time the new Bundesliga campaign rolls around.
Whatever next season brings for Nurnberg’s youngsters however, they have been a breath of fresh air this term.
