Ramona Petzelberger joins SGS Essen

Bayer 04 Women's captain Petzelberger is leaving Bayer 04. The 24 year-old has made 84 appearances to date scoring seven goals along the way. The midfielder leaves Leverkusen with 145 Bundesliga outings to her credit. The psychology student had her hardest time in the 15/16 season when she missed almost the whole of the season due to an infection (just six appearances).

Petzelberger will play alongside Turid Knaak at Essen from the summer after she announced her move to SGS a few weeks ago. Playing for Germany, Petzelberger won the U17 European Championships in 2009 and the U19 European Championships in 2011. She was already captain back then. Later she was named Golden Player of the finals. In 2012 she was a runner-up with the U 20 national side.

"It's a pity Ramona Petzelberger is leaving us. I wish her all the best for her future career and, above all, that she remains fit and healthy to be able to pursue her targets," said Verena Hagedorn about the departure the key figure from the squad two weeks after she has taken over as head coach.

Ramona Petzelberger: "I've had a lot of very good experiences and learnt a lot that has helped me develop. That includes a time when I didn't play football because of illness. After five years at Leverkusen I've decided to take a new direction and join my hometown club. I'm grateful for all the support I've had from all sides of the club. I'm looking forward to the new challenge in Essen and, of course, will do all I can write to the end for us to stay up."