Drop by drop, the people involved are placing information about the foreign projects of Hoffenheim’s main shareholder Dietmar Hopp in the public domain. The role of the consulting agency Rogon remains unclear.
Thursday morning, prominent visitors arrived at the Estadio do Fontelo, the home ground of Academico Viseu. A delegation from the Portuguese league, led by managing director Dr Helena Pires, inspected the work on the pitch of the second-division club, in which Hopp and his intimate Mariano Maroto Lopez now hold a majority stake via Hobra GmbH & Co. KG. In the middle of the visit: Sebastian Bacher. Once an employee of TSG Hoffenheim for many years, he is now, according to the Portuguese media, a member of the board of directors of Academico’s capital company, which is responsible for the professional sector.
Does Bacher now work for Hobra? They did not want to answer that recently, referring instead to October. The same applies to the future role of Dirk Mack, the former head of Hoffenheim’s youth training centre, in Hopp’s foreign projects. Only a few drops of light have been shed on Viseu and the Brazilian club Barra Futebol Clube, which is indirectly owned by a Hobra company.
On Saturday at the members’ meeting of the Bundesliga football club, a few hours before the professional team’s 3-1 defeat in Stuttgart, “Hopp explained his ideas for the ‘future of TSG’, which aim to permanently occupy sixth place and better,” it now says on Hoffenheim’s homepage. And further: “How this is to be achieved, among other things, was outlined by Mariano Maroto Lopez, managing director of Hobra GmbH und Co. KG, which is financed by Hopp, in an interesting speech that picked up the members present on the recently launched projects in the south of Brazil as well as in Portugal.” Hopp’s foreign projects, then, are expected to lay the groundwork for an assault on the European ranks.
Are we talking about the next Firmino?
With “Internationalisation of young talent. The path from the academy to the TSG professionals” was the title of Lopez’s talk. Pictured on the screen, among others: Roberto Firmino, once TSG’s record sale. So that seems to be what it’s all about: Developing the next Firmino. Which is a great thing in itself. The only question is how the obvious closeness to the Rogon consulting agency will play out in terms of the big picture?
Barra was built up by people and companies close to Roger Wittmann. And shortly after Hobra took over Viseu, four Rogon clients joined the Portuguese second-division club – including Domen Gril and Abdulkerim Cakar (both 20), two TSG players on loan who made zero (Gril) and six (Cakar) appearances for Hoffenheim’s U 23 in the Regionalliga Südwest last season.
Similarities to Red Bull
At any rate, some of those involved in the professional side seem to have a rather reserved view of the foreign projects, which operate under the aspect of promoting young talent. In addition, former TSG managing director Dr. Peter Görlich is said to have stumbled over his negative attitude towards Barra and Co. among others. Most recently, Hobra said: “The project is privately financed by Dietmar Hopp and has no direct connection with his commitment to TSG Hoffenheim, which should, however, benefit from this in the long term from a sporting point of view.”
That sounds like a Red Bull model without nominally being a Red Bull model: TSG Hoffenheim here, the Hobra clubs there, which are supposed to develop talents for the Kraichgau or give them playing practice. Former Auer coach Tomislav Stipic reported on a different kind of Kraichgau cooperation attempt with the Chinese club Nantong Zhiyun in a Spox interview. According to the report, Wittmann was even in charge at the time.
The TSG website goes on to say that detailed information about the projects will be published in the club magazine in the near future. The planned title of the story: “Promoting young talent in Brazil according to a proven model. It would be a big surprise if the names Wittmann or Rogon were mentioned in the story.
