Sunday, November 28th, 2021
After the vaccination card scandal
Werder Bremen starts again under Werner
After coach Markus Anfang had to resign due to an allegedly forged vaccination certificate, Werder Bremen sank into chaos for a short time. After lengthy negotiations with Holstein Kiel, it is now clear: 33-year-old Ole Werner should lead the traditional club that has crashed into a better future.
Ole Werner is the new coach of Werder Bremen. The 33-year-old had trained league competitor Holstein Kiel until September. His predecessor Markus Anfang resigned after investigations by the public prosecutor’s office because of an allegedly forged vaccination certificate. Werner is supposed to lead the training in Bremen for the first time on Monday. He also brings his assistant coach Patrick Kohlmann from Kiel with him. “Ole is a young, exciting and very good coach whose idea of playing football fits in very well with Werder,” Werder’s managing director Frank Baumann was quoted as saying. Since separating from Markus Anfang, Werner has been number one on the list of potential successors.
But the negotiations turned out to be difficult. Werner had finished his job with league rivals Holstein Kiel in September, but was still under contract with Schleswig-Holstein until the end of the season. And so the former European Cup winner should not be able to avoid a transfer fee for the new coach, already at the beginning of the summer in his contract with Darmstadt 98 had to be bought out for 500,000 euros. “The coach is the most important job in the club”, justified sports director Frank Baumann in advance of the painful financial transaction.
Werner was already traded as the new head coach in the summer after relegating to the Bundesliga in the summer. At the time, the Kiel veteran did not want to let his long-term employer down after he missed promotion to the Bundesliga in relegation.
Inglorious club record
The beginning, which was only required in the summer, resigned after investigations by the public prosecutor’s office because of an allegedly forged vaccination certificate. At the beginning, assistant coach Florian Junge, against whom the public prosecutor is also investigating, resigned.
This triggered a memorable interplay in the Bundesliga relegated team in the past few days. In the 1-1 draw against Schalke 04, Danijel Zenkovic initially sat on the bench as an interim coach. Its positive corona test ensured that U19 coach Christian Brand had to step in for the 2-1 defeat in Kiel on Saturday evening. In his alleged debut against Erzgebirge Aue (Friday, 6.30 p.m. / Sky), Werner would be the fourth coach in the fourth consecutive Werder game – an inglorious club record in the club’s 122-year history.
Apart from the big fuss in the club, Werner also takes on a difficult sporting task in Bremen. After the 1: 2 in Kiel, Werder is only in tenth place in the table with a thoroughly mediocre record of five wins, five draws and five defeats.