Niclas Füllkrug has extended his contract at SV Werder! After the forward announced his new deal, the formalities are now cleared and the papers have been signed. The forward, who joined made the step up into professional football from the Werder youth academy before spells at Fürth, Nürnberg and Hannover and returned to SVW three years ago, is approaching what will be his eleventh season at the club.
WERDER.DE spoke to the forward about the reasons for his extension, his connection to Bremen and the upcoming Bundesliga season.
WERDER.DE: Niclas, you’ve just extended your contract with Werder. It’s been in the works for a while. How are you feeling about it?
Niclas Füllkrug: “Of course I’m very happy about it, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it. I’m doing it based on my own absolute conviction and I’m pleased that a mutual appreciation has developed between the club and me to allow us to come to terms quickly. I’m really pleased.”
WERDER.DE: You also realised quite early on that you wanted to stay longer; an extension was never really in doubt. Why do you want to continue playing for Werder so much?
Niclas Füllkrug: “A lot of factors come into play. One is the fact that at the moment, I believe we have a really special team, a great sense of togetherness and a group who spend a lot of time together and laugh a lot. But you also get the feeling that when it’s time to be serious, everyone is serious. We’re all pushing each other along, especially at the moment during the difficult sessions of pre-season.
We have a really special team with a great sense of togetherness. We all push each other along.Niclas Füllkrug
I also find the structure that the club has built here very promising. Obviously I hope it will be successful. We have to lead the way on the pitch and perform, but everyone at the club is relaxed. Last season was successful, I’m happy with the coaching team and that was another reason behind my decision. As well as that, my family feels good here. Those are plenty of reasons to extend my contract here.”
WERDER.DE: We know that you have two clubs: one that’s in your heart and the other that you wear on your chest. The first is your local club, Hannover 96, as you come from Hannover, started playing football in Ricklingen and have a strong connection to the city. The second is Werder. You came here as a 15-year-old and lived at the club’s boarding facilities as you advanced through the youth levels. Tell us what Werder means to you.
Niclas Füllkrug: “Werder is a club that I've always enjoyed coming to. I sometimes visited even when I wasn't playing here, because simply put, I have a lot of history here and it’s a place where I have spent a lot of my life. It’s a place where I matured as a person and became who I am today. I went to school here, I spent time on the buses and trains around the city when I was young. Doing that, you get to know a city in a completely different way. You get to know different places that you don’t see nowadays, now that we travel everywhere by car. That’s how I got to know the inner Bremen. Everyone knows that the club is, at least in my opinion, one of the greatest clubs in Germany and still carries that reputation. Therefore, I absolutely wanted to continue wearing the Werder jersey. It means a lot to me to play here at the Weserstadion.”
WERDER.DE: The Bundesliga season is just around the corner. It's not unfamiliar territory for you – you’ve played in the league before and were here when we were in the Bundesliga at the beginning of your career. And still, it's a new situation now; we’re a newly-promoted side and a lot of people have us, alongside a few other teams, as favourites to be relegated. How do you approach the situation going into the season as underdogs?
Niclas Füllkrug: “I don't think it's a bad thing at all; I actually think it could do us some good. In recent years, we always set ourselves very high goals for the Bundesliga and unfortunately couldn't live up to them. Now it's the case that we actually have something to gain in almost every game. We can surprise people and we can still play offensive football without being afraid of losing, because we all know that losses happen. It probably won't cost you three, four or five places in the table, as it would have last year, so I'm looking forward to it. We can prove ourselves as a team and I think our togetherness can play a big role in our league season.”
WERDER.DE: You just mentioned the togetherness of the side. A former teammate in Mitchell Weiser returned on Friday on a permanent basis. That means that our transfer business this summer seems to be pretty much done, if we read between the lines. The positions we needed to strengthen have been strengthened, with seven new players joining the main core who were successful in the second division last season. How strong do you think we are?
Niclas Füllkrug: “We’re delighted that Mitchell is here; it’s the transfer of the summer for me. We were all waiting for it – he was valued so highly by the team and we all really like him. As a result, it’s great that he’s finally back and that we’ve got a complete squad – and one that Baumi, Clemens and the coaching team wanted. Our aim now must be to fulfil our potential and to grow the team chemistry. We need to be familiar with one another, know our jobs and know where to be when the ball is in certain parts of the pitch. I believe that if we can pick up where we left off last season then we’ll have a real advantage because everybody knew what they had to do. Of course, we were able to play in different ways, but we had our own style and as a player it’s nice to represent one idea and to perfect that. I hope we can continue doing that.”
