Germany: 29 players are invited to the training course

Germany: 29 players are invited to the training course Germany´s national coach Vital Heynen starts the preparation on April 10th.

Vital Heynen, new national team coach of Germany, informed 29 players at once about the schedule of the Olympic year 2012 – Heynen wants to get a general overview about all German players at least at the very beginning of the preparation on 10th April in Maaseik/BEL. With Simon Hirsch, Tom Strohbach (Generali Haching), Björn Höhne (Berlin Recycling Volleys), Paul Sprung, Philipp Jankowski (Netzhoppers KW-Bestensee), Georg Klein (evivo Düren) und Hans Cipowicz (EnBW TV Rottenburg) there are seven young players who make an appearance in the German national team for the first time.

Even though Ricardo Galandi (Berlin Recycling Volleys), Christian Fromm, and Merten Krüger (evivo Düren) were already part of the DVV men’s team for several times, they never participated in an international match. National team coach Vital Heynen says about the large circle of players: “I developed this list together with Stefan Hübner and Ralph Bergmann. We simply want to watch and experience these young players within the national team. These are players who might not be interesting on short notice but who could play a role in the long term.

Start of the training course is 10th April in Maaseik/BEL. Players whose clubs have already finished the season shall drive to Belgium then. The training course in Maaseik will end by 27th April, afterwards the preparation for the European Olympia qualification tournament in Sofia/BUL (8th to 13th May) will be continued in Heidelberg. On 7th May, DVV selection flies to Bulgaria where they will encounter Slovakia, Finland, and Italy at the preliminary round of the eighth tournament. Only the winner of this tournament qualifies for London 2012. Immediately after the tournament in Bulgaria, there will be the preparation for the World League - beginning from 25th to 27th May in Frankfurt/Main – as well as for the final Olympia qualification in Berlin (8th to 10th June – if Germany qualifies in Bulgaria, this tournament will not take place in Berlin).

Heynen is not yet sure about when he will nominate the players for the most crucial tournaments: “It is dependent on various factors, of course also on injuries. It is possible as well that the players being in Bulgaria will not be the 12 players participating in the World League and in Berlin.”

The following players will be invited: Björn Andrae (Kemerovo/RUS), Lukas Bauer (Toulouse/FRA), Georg Grozer (Rzeszow/POL), Lukas Kampa (Piacenza/ITA), Robert Kromm, Marcus Popp (Verona/ITA), Jochen Schöps (Odintsovo/RUS), Sebastian Schwarz (Padua/ITA), Markus Steuerwald (Paris/FRA), Patrick Steuerwald (Warschau/POL), Ferdinand Tille (Sete/FRA), Simon Tischer (Krasnodar/RUS), Marcus Böhme (VfB Friedrichshafen), Max Günthör, Christian Dünnes, Denis Kaliberda, Simon Hirsch, Sebastian Prüsener, Tom Strohbach (Generali Haching), Ricardo Galandi, Felix Fischer, Björn Höhne (Berlin Recycling Volleys), Sebastian Krause, Paul Sprung, Philipp Jankowski (Netzhoppers KW-Bestensee), Georg Klein, Christian Fromm, Merten Krüger (evivo Düren), Hans Cipowitz (EnBW TV Rottenburg)

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