Hertha Berlin sporting director Arne Friedrich: Bundesliga still the best platform for young talent to develop

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Kai Havertz and Timo Werner, both signed by Chelsea, represent Germany's still-thriving talent pool.
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The coronavirus outbreak may have turned the footballing world upside down, but the Bundesliga clubs’ transfer business this summer has at least provided some normality.

Their policy of developing Europe’s best young talent, and selling them on for huge profit, has continued at pace.

Timo Werner and Kai Havertz have already joined Chelsea while Jadon Sancho is attracting interest from Manchester United amid talk of a £100million transfer fee.

And while they may be leaving, the next hot young talent has already come through the doors after Jude Bellingham left Birmingham City to join Borussia Dortmund.

It is a strategy that has already proved to be very profitable for Bundesliga clubs, with Dortmund standing to make 10 times what they bought Sancho for, and one Hertha Berlin sporting director Arne Friedrich cannot see stopping anytime soon.

Friedrich has grand plans for Hertha.
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“I think it is a great league for young players to develop,” Friedrich tells Standard Sport.

“It is all a matter of finances and so still the British teams, or the big clubs such as Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid, they pay different salaries than most German teams can do.

“Therefore for us it is always finding ways to be creative to develop a young and strong team.

“We have good talent here in Germany too, but for the English youth players it is a good platform for them to develop.

“For us, and for all of our teams here, we are always welcoming young, talented players.

Sancho has developed into one of Europe's top talents at Dortmund.
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“We have to make sure we can keep our club sustainable and if you can develop a young player from abroad - or from your own academy - and then at one point you can sell them and make money to keep on going.

“Those players (Havertz and Werner), they’ve already proved they are big players. Timo Werner is a German national team player.

“They have already built their reputation in Germany and now it is on other teams that can pay more money than Leipzig. In the end, for now, we get more of the younger talented players that didn’t have that reputation already, in order to develop them here in Germany.

“Therefore it is a win-win situation in my opinion. I think this whole scenario is going to keep on going.”

For Friedrich, along with his scouting team, it is his task to try and unearth the next big talent and bring them to Hertha Berlin.

Before taking up his role there he dabbled in a number of jobs, though, such as punditry and coaching, but the chance to shape a club close to his heart eventually won him over.

“I really like to work with players, with human beings in general, in order to help them as a player on the football side, but also when it comes to character and values,” says Friedrich.

“This is something I am really passionate about and this is something I try to implement here at Berlin too.

“When I arrived in Berlin in 2002 [as a player] everyone was talking about this sleeping giant. The foundation is great. We are in the capital, there’s a huge stadium, a big fan culture.

“I had many offers throughout my career from big teams in Europe and I always decided to stay here.”

Hertha Berlin may be “a sleeping giant” but backed by financier Lars Windhorst they are trying to establish themselves among the Bundesliga’s top clubs.

Lars Windhorst trying to awaken a sleeping giant in Hertha.
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That is no easy task given the dominance of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, while the outbreak of coronavirus has made Friedrich’s task of recruitment even harder.

“That is a very complex job. Coronavirus has made it very complicated for us to scout players live,” he explains.

“We always try to work as close as possible together and so we scout players on platforms such as WyScout.

“We are looking at WyScout basically the whole day and also the coach when he is not on the pitch.

“We have contacts around the world and in Europe, and we always want to get as much information as possible from the player.

“I think we can estimate the player on the pitch very well when we look at the games, but it another thing to really try and figure out how is this person character wise. What is his mindset? “Therefore it always helps to meet players and talk about them, but we really try to do as much research as we can. Due to the coronavirus it is obviously a little bit complicated.”

There is belief, however, that Hertha Berlin can upset the status quo in Germany and Friedrich is at the heart of that.

He is one of a number of ex-Germany players from his playing days in executive roles, with Per Mertesacker heading up Arsenal’s academy and Thomas Hitzlsperger head of sport at Stuttgart.

“Maybe that was the golden generation for jobs like that?” says Friedrich with a smile.

“I think the players and my former team-mates are all capable of doing their jobs. The guys that you have mentioned were always very open-minded, trying to learn, trying to get different inspirations from abroad. So therefore I think every one of them is going to do a great job.”

Hertha watched on as Bayern again won the German Cup at their stadium.
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For Friedrich, success in his job will involve Hertha Berlin winning a trophy under his guidance. Specifically, he is targeting the German Cup - whose final is held at Hertha’s Olympiastadion every year.

“This is something that everyone is fighting for here in Berlin,” he says.

“Berlin hosts the cup final every year and the only thing that I can tell is that we always watch it from our living room. This is something I definitely want to change.

“We are about to grow and we definitely want to get into the peak of the Bundesliga, but it definitely takes time.

“Everyone here that works at this club has done an amazing job. We have the financial background for now, we have an investor, and now it is up to us what we do with the money.”

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