Werder Bremen have signed Niklas Andersen from third division Rot-Weiss Essen. The 19 year old defender signed a four year deal to keep him at the club until 30.06.2012. The defender will join up with his new team mates for the beginning of pre-season training this Thursday.

General manager Klaus Allofs commented on Monday morning: “Niklas has a great deal of potential and we want to give him the opportunity to develop that here with us. He will learn a lot from training on a daily basis with the first team and he’ll have the chance to gather match practice with the reserves in the third division.

The twice capped U20 international, who was born in Frankfurt, is delighted about the task in hand: “Of course this a great opportunity for me. Werder is a big club and it’s fantastic to get a chance here. In this team, every training session will be a new challenge, which I look forward to. I will give my all,” said Andersen, who had the chance to check out the Weser Stadium and surroundings at the weekend.

In his first full season in professional football, Andersen made 26 appearances for Rot-Weiss Essen. The 1,91m tall defender, who weighs in at 78kg, has made his breakthrough in the U20 national team too, where he made his debut in a 1:0 win against Italy on 05.12.2007.