‘Maintain high level of transition’: Bayer 04 en route to talent support status

Daniel Ziegler has been working in the newly created position of girls sporting director since April and the 28-year-old is also the U23 coach, the oldest of five junior teams. The full-time roles of Ziegler and his fellow U23 coach Mirko Casper are part of the preconditions set by the German Football Association (DFB) on the clubs in the Women's Bundesliga to achieve recognition as performance or talent support centres. Last January, the DFB awarded this status to the first six clubs (TSG Hoffenheim, SGS Essen, Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt, SC Freiburg, VfL Wolfsburg). Bayer 04 are now aiming to be awarded the title of talent support centre by the application deadline on 30 September.

"With our two full-time posts, we are strengthening the focus on analysis of training sessions. The aim is to present a unified philosophy for all youth teams and to develop the female players as best as possible with competition against older opponents," said Ziegler: "We want to maintain the high level of transition to the first-team in the Bundesliga. Therefore, it is more important to bring through as many girls as possible into the next age group than to top of the table." Nevertheless, there is obviously the sporting ambition to "challenge at the top."

role model Trio of Remien, Schwartze and Wrigge 

The ability to step up from the Bayer 04 youth section to the Women's first-team has recently been demonstrated by Louisa Remien, Paula Schwartze and Amy Wrigge. The trio will be in the Bundesliga squad from the start of the new season – and they are most recent role model for many junior players. In addition to those three, Sana Coskun, Alisa Sinani, Jana Lindner and Jolina Heltemes from Bayer 04 youth teams took part in the first pre-season training sessions with the Women and in friendlies under coach Roberto Pätzold.

Together with the 43-year-old Casper, a former Bundesliga player at Alemannia Aachen, Ziegler will in future work both on and off the pitch to ensure progress at the Kurtekotten Performance Centre – always in close contact with Achim Feifel, the Women's sporting director. "It's about supporting the other coaches as best as possible with all organisational matters but also to enable a common approach and advanced training. In many areas we will be guided by our junior teams and will make use of synergies."

U23, U19, U16, U13 and U12 teams

Below the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga team there will be five other sides in the future. The U23 Women, the U19, U16 , U13 and U12 junior sides. The U23s, who will carry on in the Regional League West, will have more over 20-year-old players than last year. The previous U17s become the U19 team and will be a development side in the U19 league of the West German Football Association (WDFV). The U16 team replace last year's U17s in the U17 Regional League West. The youngest sides in the female youth section play in the U13 Leistungsstaffel Kreis Berg (Berg district performance league) and the U12 Normalstaffel Kreis Berg (Berg district standard league) against male junior teams.

The U23 coaching staff consists of Casper, the first full-time female youth coach at Bayer 04, together with Ziegler in a double role plus Cornelia Reese and goalkeeping coach Marcel Gietzen. Lars Heinrichs, previously the U17 coach, manages the U19s together with Johannes Müller and Gietzen. Ahmadou Koita, David Wendling and goalkeeping coach Sascha Mertschat are in charge of the U16s. The U13 coaches are Carolin Bekemeier, Jürgen Haagmans and Mertschat, with Aleksandar Vukicevic and Mertschat responsible for the U12s.