The Wolves officially got their 2025/26 campaign under way on Wednesday morning with their first pre-season training session under new head coach Paul Simonis. In addition to the approximately 400 spectators watching on, new VfL supervisory board member Diego Benaglio was also an interested observer.
New trio introduced, duo absent
Tiago Tomas, who represented Portugal at the U21 European Championship, and Mohammed Amoura (thigh complaint) were both absent, but a total of 27 players took to the pitch to warm applause from VfL fans, who were given a first glimpse of summer signings Vini Souza, Aaron Zehnter and Jakub Zielinski.
“We’ve got a lot of things planned”
The players were soon back doing what they do best. “You can see that the boys are happy to have the ball at their feet again,” said VfL sporting director Sebastian Schindzielorz.
“It’s always nice for any footballer to be on the ball. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of hard work ahead to prepare for the challenges of the new season. Pre-season can be painful but that’s just part of it all.”
In addition to physical and conditioning work over the coming weeks, Schindzielorz said that “we’ve also got a lot of things planned in terms of playing style, tactics and team spirit – we’re looking forward to it.”
Selfies and autographs
After the almost two-hour session was over, the players took selfies, signed autographs and chatted with the fans.
Upcoming friendly
The Green-and-Whites have their first pre-season friendly over the summer on Saturday 12 July against a Beck’s XI at the Sportpark Flutmulde in Gifhorn (kick-off 12:00 CEST).
That encounter is the first of eight warm-up games for Simonis’ side ahead of their competitive start on Saturday 16 August away to SV Hemelingen in the DFB Cup first round (kick-off 15:30 CEST).
