SV Werder Bremen

SV Werder Bremen

SV Werder Bremen: North German Perseverance

Reliability, continuity and class: three qualities that have characterized SV Werder Bremen's first division team for almost two decades now. For many years, the club has been a fixture in the table tennis Bundesliga - so long in fact that few people today know how the history of the northern Germans in Germany's top division began.

After winning the title in the 2nd Bundesliga in 2004/05, those responsible initially needed another year to pluck up the courage to make the leap into the top flight. In 2006, Werder took the plunge and was immediately relegated, but the following season was to be the club's last in the second division. This was followed not only by immediate promotion, but also by a permanent place among Germany's minor leagues.

"Mutual appreciation and great trust."

Winning the German Team Championship in 2013 is still the highlight of this success story. "At that time," recalls team manager Sascha Greber, "we had already been with DONIC for several years." The partnership between Werder Bremen and the traditional German company is characterized by mutual appreciation and great trust. "For me, DONIC stands for very high quality - and for trust anyway," Greber emphasizes. "I still know Frank Schreiner from the time when I played in the second division." The culture that company director Schreiner has built up at DONIC is particularly appreciated in Bremen. The relationship is very personal, the employees very cordial, says Sascha Greber. And Werder coach Cristian Tamas adds that DONIC is "absolutely reliable" as a partner.

Reliability, continuity and class - those three characteristics that distinguish Werder Bremen also distinguish DONIC. The club's continuity is also reflected in its personnel planning: the team has started the 2023/24 season unchanged. Mattias Falck, Kirill Gerassimenko, Cristian Pletea and Marcelo Aguirre want to have nothing to do with relegation in the strong TTBL this year. Cristian Tamas is still aiming a bit higher: "But we also don't want to lose sight of 4th place."

The jump into the play-offs does not seem impossible, but Bremen's competition is broad. With Mattias Falck, the World Championship runner-up in singles in 2019 and World Champion in doubles in 2021, Werder has one of the big stars of the league in the team. And for the North German continuity speaks that with Kirill Gerassimenko another fixed size has already extended his contract for another year. The Kazakh feels very much at home in Bremen, and he has developed enormously here, as has Marcelo Aguirre from Paraguay. Coach Tamas is also a firm believer in the potential of Romanian Cristian Pletea, who, however, "still needs to work a bit on his mentality".

"A strong partner who can always be relied on: DONIC."

Werder offers good conditions for this. Thanks in part to the long-standing partnership with DONIC, Bremen has developed into one of the most important locations for top table tennis in Germany. Together with six to eight international training partners, the Bremen team works continuously on site; only the Swede Falck usually joins the squad three to four days before the matches.

Werder Bremen has long been one of the most traditional clubs in the TTBL, and with northern German perseverance the club is working on further successes: determined, unagitated, persistent. Always accompanied by a strong partner who can always be relied on: DONIC.