Nürnberg Play with Special Spirit

This comparison is not fair, but it shows the great differences in Germany: Men’s champion THW Kiel has a budget of 6.5 million Euro, sold more than 10.000 season tickets and signed some World class players to complete their World class team.

On the other hand, 1. FC Nurnberg, women’s champions have a different situation. Their budget is estimated to be around 300.000 Euro; the club calculates with 700 spectators a game, and most key players left the squad.

“We don’t start crying about these facts, but we know that especially in the Champions League we will not have a good chance,” says Romanian-born coach, Herbert Müller.

Without him there could hardly be first league handball any more in the city that is Worldwide famous for the Christmas fair. The financial problems began in February, but the players showed their character and played a fantastic championship to win the title against Bayer Leverkusen.

Changes in the roster

However, the sword of Damocles – the lack of resources – was hanging above their heads. The team found new sponsors for the upcoming season, but the core of the team left the club. Former national players, Kathrin Blacha, Agnieszka Tobiasz and Barbara Strass, ended their careers, Katrin Engel signed for Hypo Niederösterreich, playmaker Serpil Iskenderoglu returned to Turkey, goalkeeper Silvia Harlander is looking for a new club and the best player of the last years, Austrian Steffi Ofenböck, is pregnant.

The only new player is Swedish pivot, Maja Sommerlund, from Erfurt. The roster is filled up from Nurnberg’s reserve team that played in the third division so far. Nevertheless, Müller is still optimistic:

“We have to fight hard to play an important role in the league as we have a totally new team, but I think that the players who stayed are eager to win.”

Müller did not lose their top scorer, Ania Rösler. Though she had a great offer from Viborg (and from others before), she will play for the Germans in future.

“Ania is our key to success. Without her it would have been even harder,” says Müller, who will also have to do without their important backcourt-player, Christina Rohde. She will be out with a knee injury until October. The only other key players from the last season are the Slovak internationals, Miriam Simakova, Mariana Gubova (goalkeeper) and the German talents Kerstin Wohlbold and Jana Krause.

“We had the worst possible draw in the Champion League. When I was in Vienna at the draw, I was really shocked, but I could smile a bit later. Our spectators will see two of the best teams in the world,” says Müller. The CL opponents will be Zvenigorod Zvezda and Krim Ljubjana.

Special spirit

“Even if we perform 200% all the matches, we have no chance to win.” As a result, the hopes to reach the second group phase are minimal. The most important thing for the season is to integrate the new players in the team. Müller wants and hopes to reach the Bundesliga play-offs.

“If we are realistic, there are some better teams. But our team has a special spirit, this is our chance. And they should have fun with handball.”

His CL favourite for the next season are Viborg, followed by Valcea from Romania.

“It is bitter to see, how great possibilities these clubs have compared to us,” Müller said. “But one of our objectives is create solid economic foundations to secure a bright future for the team.”