Marco Friedl to captain Werder in top flight

Twenty-four-year-old Austrian international Marco Friedl was confirmed as SV Werder Bremen’s new skipper on Sunday. 

The player charged with snapping on Ömer Toprak’s old captain’s armband will indeed be recent want-away defender Marco Friedl. Newly promoted SV Werder Bremen confirmed that the 24-year-old has been elected as the club’s new skipper on Sunday. Veteran defender Milos Veljkovic will serve as the primary alternate.

“I’m honored to receive the confidence of the lads,” Friedl noted in a statement “It’s a big responsibility for me as the captain to represent this club on and off the pitch.”

“It’s certainly an expression of the trust that the players have in him,” SV head-coach Ole Werner noted of the clubhouse-leadership election, which also included Veljkovic, Leonardo Bittencourt, Christian Groß, and Niclas Füllkrug, “I’m convinced that he’ll fulfill his new role well.”

Friedl has been with the club since 2017, initially joining on loan from German giants FC Bayern München. The thrice-capped Austrian spoke on his journey with the club through its ups and downs two weeks ago in an interview for the print edition of German footballing magazine Kicker.

“I’ve actually lived through everything with the club now,” Friedl said at the time “A super first season when we just missed out on the Europa League, then the relegation playoffs, the actual relegation, and now promotion. I was always in the thick of things and came to the realization that I have to be a leader, especially from the back ranks. That’s what I worked on last year, contributing more to the team and pulling the younger players up.”

Unser neuer Kapitän Marco #Friedl hat natürlich auch ein paar Worte gesagt… 🤍🔥#Werder | #TachDerFans pic.twitter.com/Nwt4qlHo4C

— SV Werder Bremen (@werderbremen) July 24, 2022

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