In the summer, SC Freiburg officially promoted six young players to coach Christian Streich’s professional squad. Since then, the development of the talents has varied. Sporting director Klemens Hartenbach continues to believe in the potential of the sextet.
SC Freiburg’s transfer activities were limited during the summer break: Apart from Baptiste Santamaria’s return to France to join Stade Rennes and the signing of Maximilian Eggestein from Werder Bremen in response, little happened in the squad.
The promotion of six players from the club’s own youth squad to the professional squad therefore stood out all the more. Some of the talented players had already trained with coach Christian Streich’s Bundesliga team, but since July they have been permanent members of the first team.
Klar: “The development process is not complete for any of them,” emphasises sporting director Klemens Hartenbach. A team of several people around the head coaches of the first and second teams in the Bundesliga and the 3rd division is keeping a close eye on the progress of the youngsters, who are also expected to gain match practice with the U23s.
Noah Weißhaupt: The 20-year-old winger is perhaps in the most complicated situation. “He is highly talented and technically strong,” praises Hartenbach, who sees a “totally good development”. But that is not yet reflected in playing time. But that is only a question of time. After all, Weißhaupt provided the assist for the equaliser in the 1-1 draw against 1 FC Cologne at the beginning of September. In total, four short appearances in the Bundesliga and in the DFB Cup are offset by three games from the start with Freiburg’s U 23 in the 3rd division. “We all see his development,” stresses Hartenbach.
Kevin Schade: He is the through-starter of the sextet. The 20-year-old impresses in attack with pace and scoring power, now also with the U-21 national team. On his debut against Israel (3:2) at the beginning of October, he scored with his head to make it 2:2. “It’s very pleasing with him. Our way of playing suits his strengths,” says Hartenbach. Streich has already put him in the starting eleven five times, and nine times he came into the game after half-time. He even scored two goals and provided one assist.
Kiliann Sildillia: The 19-year-old Frenchman made ten appearances for the U23s, but at least he was allowed to show his skills from the start once with the professionals. The defender was quite convincing against RB Leipzig (1:1) in his position on the right side of the back four. After that, however, he was left out despite the absence of right-back Jonathan Schmid. “Of course he still has to learn a thing or two, but Kiliann is highly talented,” affirms Hartenbach. The situation in defence is not easy, he says, which is why centre-back Dominique Heintz recently moved to Union Berlin. “He has to be patient in order to assert himself,” says the SC manager. “But I have no concerns about that. “
Kimberly Ezekwem: The 20-year-old defensive player is intended as a back-up to left-back Christian Günter and is expected to mature behind the perennial player and international. “He has a lot of potential,” says Hartenbach, adding that they deliberately did not bring in another Günter replacement because they have “great confidence” in Ezekwem. So far, however, he has been hampered by injuries. At least he made five appearances for the U23s, three of them recently in December.
Noah Atubolu: The Freiburg native is usually in goal for the third division team. Atubolu played 17 of the U23’s 20 competitive games as the number 1 and is the number 3 in the professional ranks, behind Mark Flekken and Benjamin Uphoff. “We trust Noah to one day be the next goalkeeper to make the really big step out of football school,” Hartenbach believes.
Nishan Burkart: Despite four nominations for the matchday squad, the 21-year-old Swiss has not played a role in the professional squad so far and “only” one penalty goal has come out of ten appearances for the U23s. “For him, the progress is not fast enough yet. He has to calm down and also appreciate small progress,” says Hartenbach and is optimistic: “But we also see the small things that are continuously improving with him.
