New start for Nürnberg

They were one of the biggest surprises in the last Champions League season, but this year will be hard for the German champion 1. FC Nürnberg.

Last season, coach Herbert Müller knew how to motivate players and he was to be credited for reaching the main round as the first German team ever.

Müller will not motivate Nürnberg any more. He signed for Rulmental Brasov in his native country, Romania. It was a shock for all the players when Müller said goodbye right before the first training session at the start of the preparation.

His brother Helfried, assistant coach, and the Slovakian left handed player, Miriam Simakova, went to Brasov together with him.

Besides Simakova, one of the best shooters in the Bundesliga, the Austrian international Steffie Ofenböck, Swedish pivot Maja Sommerlund, Slovakian Petra Popluharova and Simone Luber left the club.

With a small budget, Nürnberg were able to sign young players from Germany and Austria. The only exception is the Austrian Kathrin Engel who will return to Nürnberg from Hypo Niederösterreich.

The new coach is coming from Slovakia, Csaba Szűcs. He never worked with a women’s team before.

On top of all, Nürnberg will start the Bundesliga with minus four points due to mistakes in the licensing process.

Nevertheless, the players are ambitious: “We never had it easy, and again we will have to improvise. We want to be successful in Germany and in the Champions League,” Ania Rösler, one of the top stars said.

New pivot, Franziska Garcia-Almendaris, a former youth German international, will miss the next six month due to a cruciate ligament injury that she picked up at a preparation tournament in Schmelz that Nürnberg won last weekend.

With this young team, including some of last season’s top players such as goalkeeper Jana Krause, Rösler, Christina Rohde and Franziska Beck, the club hopes to reach the play-offs in the Bundesliga again. The objectives for the Champions League are not so clear:

“We have to wait and see how the team can cope with the hard weeks in the German league and Champions League. But as we had so much fun and success last season, we want to play again like that,” Rösler said.

As they have to change their hall, the club hopes that in average 4 000 spectators will come to the CL matches.

“We will give all we can at the international matches and we are highly motivated. Champions League is very important for the club – not only for the development of the players, but also for our image and for finding new sponsors,” coach Csaba Szűcs said.