The path from being a youth player to getting into the first team isn’t an easy one. Players need to put in blood, sweat, tears, and hard work. This is what Johannes Eggestein did before finally establishing himself as a first-team regular at Werder.
Johannes Eggestein made the move to Werder from his hometown club TSV Havelse, and there have been a lot of ups and downs since. 33 goals in 26 games in his final season with the youth team made people sit up and take notice, and Eggestein moved up into the U23 side. The attacker played some games in the third division and started to get some Bundesliga minutes under his belt towards the end of last season.
His coach Florian Kohfeldt is absolutely convinced of his qualities and gave him the chance to impress at the highest level. “He’s developed superbly across this season and he had his best Bundesliga game to date in Leverkusen,” said Kohfeldt. Eggestein puts this down to developments “both physically and mentally, but also due to a lot of one-to-one chats with the coach.” However, his journey up to now has been “a whole process and the interplay of a lot of factors has brought it together,” he added.
There were also more difficult times, when Eggestein was injured or needed to find some form: “I needed to have patience, but I had to be impatient at the same time to constantly strive for more,” he said. Eggestein knows that he still has a long way to go: “I’m now mature enough to succeed in the Bundesliga and I want to give something back to those who believed in me and supported me.”
Werder’s next game is at home to Mainz this Saturday (30th March, 15:30 CET) as they look to continue picking up points in the race for Europe.
