Lovely weather, a relaxed atmosphere, plenty of events and activities and then to top it all off, an incredible 8-1 win in the final warm-up match – visitors to the VfL Family and Fan Day certainly had plenty to enjoy on Saturday as the Green-and-Whites officially launched their 2019/2020 season. A good 10,000 VfL fans came along to the Green-and-Whites party that once again had lots on offer besides the match. As well as Family and Fan Day classics such as lives acts and talks on the big stage, this year also saw the VfL Kids Day at the VfL Center training ground, with the first-team squad paying a visit.
Warm welcome for the VfL new recruits
The quartet of new recruits Paulo Otavio, Kevin Mbabu, Xaver Schlager and Joao Victor were given a rousing reception, with Otavio (who is currently injured) telling fans that his decision to come to Wolfsburg was influenced by his former Ingolstadt team-mate and ex-Wolf Christian Träsch. That same goes for Mbabu, with fellow Swiss players Admir Mehmedi and AC Milan defender Ricardo Rodriguez having nothing but good things to say about their time at VfL. The former Young Boys player is looking forward to enjoying plenty of success with the Green-and-Whites, and certainly makes no bones of how ambitious he is, saying: "maybe we can do better than we managed last season and even qualify for the Champions League". For Schlager too, joining up with the Wolves is a dream come true. "Every Austrian wants to play at some point in Germany and in the Bundesliga," he explained, "so this was a logical step for me – and I’m really pleased with how things have turned out." Victor meanwhile gave the fans plenty to smile about when he spoke, which he did in German. "I played with Paulo for two weeks in Linz and he’s a good friend of mine. William too. Sometimes we get on the coach’s nerves because we fool around all the time, but hey – we’re Brazilians!" he grinned.
