In the recent past, youth coordinator Andreas Gfirtner and head of talent development Sigi Gillmaier have restructured the SSV’s youth area and made a few adjustments in order to sustainably advance the sporting development – with success and the full backing of the board. Sports Director Alexander Köberl is particularly pleased about this development for the two fathers of success. “Andy and Sigi have been working with enormous passion on the continuous development of our junior team for several years. One of their goals is to offer youth players from the region a top platform to develop as footballers. And of course also with the aim of training players from our own ranks for the senior teams. Good upward communication is also important.”as Köberl emphasizes: “The cooperation between youth and seniors works really well, for which a big thank you goes to Joe Stinglhammer and Alfred van Bergen from the sports management as well as Valdrin Blakaj and Mario Reichenberger as coaches, who fully follow this path, support it and give every young player a chance.
“Promote and challenge” is the motto of Gfirtner and Gillmaier, which is lived week after week in the 14 youth teams together with the over 30 coaches. It was and is therefore very important to both of them to play in the U13 as well as the U15, U17 and U19 in the district league. “This season we managed to play with all four teams in the BOL for the first time, which makes us very proud. We were also able to celebrate four titles in the indoor district championship, which means we can represent our Rottal beyond the district borders not only outdoors, but also indoors.”says youth coordinator Andreas Gfirtner. “And we’re doing everything we can to keep BOL in all age groups, even if it won’t be an easy undertaking. For our talents, this is the optimal platform on which they are really challenged and can compete against strong opponents.”says Gfirtner, explaining the principle of ‘demanding’. “We prepare the players specifically for these tasks in training and give them the appropriate tools – for the games in the BOL, but also for the transition to the senior level.”Head of Talent Promotion Sigi Gillmaier adds the principle of ‘promoting’. “In the end, of course, it never works itself out, but if you are fully committed, you have every opportunity with us.”so Gfirtner.
The most recent two examples, Yehor Kosiachenko and Acer Kesiku, also show this. The former is already an integral part of the national league team in his first season with the men and knows how to impress with his enthusiasm for playing, while the latter primarily collects match practice in the SG SSVH, but is fully integrated into the training operations and the ‘First’ team and can therefore take important development steps. Louis Albrecht, Tobias Mehrbrodt, Joffrait Franciso, Nikola Jurakic, Fabian Kraus, Nico Obermaier, Özgür Sentürk and Mohammad Almowahed will be joining the SSV men’s teams in the summer – a whole team, so to speak. None other than Simon Schie serves as a great role model for the boys on and off the pitch, but also in general for the path they take at SSV. The captain and identification figure of the national league team also comes from the SSV’s youth department and has developed into an absolute leading player over the years.
“Simon is the perfect example of the path that you can take with us. He really threw himself into training from day one, took his cues from experienced players like Thomas Wohlmannstetter, absorbed everything and was never above gaining match practice in the second team or in an unfamiliar position.”Köberl describes the path of the tenner. Simon Schie has been an integral part of the SSV’s first team for several years and this season he even shines as his team’s best goalscorer. “This is exactly what the path can look like and we hope that the U19 boys will take Simon, Blin and Co. as role models and follow in their footsteps in the future.”said Köberl. Only Joffrait Francisco will probably have a different role model in this context. He can take a cue from his brother Manasse, who has worked his way up to the position of vice-captain of the state league team over the last few years and is now lacing up his shoes for the Bayern league team SV Erlbach.
Peter Berg and Matthias Petermann serve as role models and future training partners for Jonas Gruber. The 17-year-old goalkeeper talent Gruber will look after the U19 goal for another year in the 2026/27 season, but will already be involved in training with the seniors and will therefore be in regular contact with Berg and Petermann. “Jonas is a top goalkeeper talent who we are placing a lot of faith in. He should finish his youth days and play his last U19 year as a leading player. We want to gradually introduce him to the men’s area through training in the summer, provide him with targeted support and enable him to make a smooth transition to our senior teams a year later.”explains Köberl.
The SSV is looking forward to many new, young and motivated faces who will strengthen the men’s teams from summer onwards. “We are very proud that the boys are following along and want to continue their journey with us. The conversations we have had with them show that they are all really keen on their personal development, but can also assess themselves well,” said Köberl. In the upcoming second half of the season, the full focus is now on the goal of staying in the BOL league with the U19, before the new adventure awaits the young talents. For some, it may be directly in the national league squad, for some it may also be via the second team for the time being. “With the re-establishment of the SG, we have taken an important step to guarantee the talented players match practice and we hope that we will be able to take the next important step with promotion to the district league. However, we will then be able to achieve this through relegation, which will not be an easy undertaking. But sooner or later we definitely want to achieve this in order to be able to offer the young players attractive leagues for optimal development. Which team they end up playing in is of course up to the player himself.”says Köberl.
