‘That’s the connection we should be fostering’: Maza visits Birkenberg soccer school

Maza visited the children in the east of Leverkusen after the open training session at midday, taking over from Nathan Tella as the patron of the soccer school. In previous years,Exequiel Palacios, Florian Wirtz, Kai Havertz and Lukas Hradecky have also been there. Some 400 children have taken part in the football activity during the current summer holidays. 

"i really enjoyed it"

The Algeria international received a warm welcome as soon as he arrived. During the Q&A session that followed, Maza spoke to the children about the new Werkself kits, described his experiences at his first World Cup in the summer and, by expressing a preference for Cristiano Ronaldo over Lionel Messi, at least won the approval of half the audience.

It wasn’t just the children whose joy was plain to see; the Werkself player also relished the young footballers’ enthusiasm, as he confirmed afterwards: “I really enjoyed it! It’s always lovely to see the children’s enthusiasm for football. I think it’s brilliant that our club has been supporting this initiative for so many years. That’s the sort of connection we should be fostering.”

Autographs, Selfies and a group photo

The ‘ma(za)gical’ talk for the young footballers was rounded off with a group photo with the Bundesliga player. He then, of course, took the time to fulfil the children’s numerous requests for selfies and autographs, signing boots, shirts and water bottles. The youngsters then headed back onto the pitch – perhaps the next Maza-style magician on the ball will emerge from among them.