Harmonious exchange of views at fan club meeting

As at the training camp in Salzburger Land, Fernando Carro wanted to introduce himself to the fans. Together with Rudi Völler (sporting managing director), the Werkself head coach Heiko Herrlich and club captain Lars Bender, the new chairman of the Bayer 04 board took the opportunity to get close to the fans in Q&A session – which also included some tough questions from the fans.

Bender calls for support

The subjects under discussion included the allocation of the number 11 shirt to Isaac Kiese Thelin,  which was worn by club legend Stefan Kießling up to the summer. In spite  of fully understanding the disquiet of certain sections of the Bayer 04 support, Lars Bender called for everybody to get behind the new signing. Particularly as the Swede said it was "a great honour" to be able to wear the number worn by Kießling for many years. The skipper drew loud applause for that statement.

"It's good to be asked critical questions from time to time. We can only get to the bottom of things when we know what our fans are thinking," said Herrlich before adding: "We have every reason to be thankful as the support was brilliant last season: We experienced great backing all the way – also at times when it wasn't going that well. For example, I can think of the game at Köln, which was a disaster for all of us on the pitch. Despite that, our fans gave us great support again the following week. That gave us a real boost."

After the hour-long discussion at the BayArena, the fans moved on to the beer garden on the north side of the ground to round off the event in a sociable atmosphere. Fernando Carro, Meinolf Sprink (community affairs and fans director) were there too along with the team from the Fan House represented by Frank Linde, Andreas Paffrath and Rüdiger Vollborn to chat with the fans. "It's really important to get together as we all share the same aim: We want to be successful on the pitch. In order to achieve that sporting success it's important for our fans to support the team in good as well as difficult times," said Carro.