Heidel: “We don’t have to deal with a big rebuild”

The aim for the new season is clear. “We obviously want to get away from the danger zone as quickly as possible this season. We don’t have to deal with a big rebuild and we want our football to be like it was in the second half of last season, where we had pretty much a full squad to choose from, rather than how it was in the first half of the campaign, where we were regularly struggling for numbers,” said Christian Heidel after Mainz’s first team kicked off pre-season on Wednesday evening at the Bruchwegstadion.

While Bo Henriksen and his slightly reduced squad were enjoying their return to the pitch to prepare for the 2024/25 Bundesliga season, 1. FSV Mainz 05’s board member for sport was up in his office in the main stand talking about expectations and squad planning ahead of the club’s 19th campaign in Germany’s top flight. Aside from Paul Nebel (returned from two years on loan at Karlsruher SC), Aymen Barkok (returned after spending second half of last season at Hertha BSC) and Armindo Sieb (signed this week), there were a number of new young faces on the training ground, but also several players missing. Jae-sung Lee, Andreas Hanche-Olsen and Brajan Gruda, who spent time with their national teams after the end of last season, will join up with the rest of the squad on 15th July.

Van den Berg’s future still unclear

Phillipp Mwene and Silvan Widmer, who have represented Austria and Switzerland respectively at EURO 2024, will also get more time off, as well as new signing from Japan, Kaishu Sano. Fellow new signing Nikolas Veratschnig is due to arrive on Monday. It’s not yet clear whether centre-back Sepp van den Berg will return for a second season on loan from Liverpool.

Jason Amann, Daniel Gleiber, Marcel Kalemba, Tim Müller and Philipp Schulz from the U23s will make up numbers in training until the squad is complete again. “Anybody that knows Bo is aware that these lads also have the chance to impress him,” said Heidel. “The only uncertainty we have is regarding Sepp van den Berg, we’ll have to wait and see,” explained the 61-year-old. “We’d like to have Sepp back with us soon. If we get him back, we wouldn’t need to do anything to our defence because it would be the same as last season, just hopefully without the injuries. We’d have a lot of quality in the position.”

Heidel reported that Jürgen Klopp’s departure from Liverpool has had a big impact. It has resulted in new coaches arriving, who firstly want to take a look at all the players. All of their defenders are currently away on international duty too. “Sepp has to go back and train there and we’ll remain in contact. We’ll see how things turn out. If we didn’t have any hope or believe we didn’t have a chance, we’d simply say that that ship has sailed. Sepp would like to join us and we’d like to sign him, we just have to see if we can find an agreement with Liverpool. The facts are that he’s under contract. If Liverpool say he’s staying there, then he has to stay here. We’ve got a contractual agreement with Liverpool that we’ll not discuss in public. Liverpool also know that he’s developed well here and that if he stays here for another year he’ll still be under contract there. I think Sepp is desperate to play football and not be a fifth-choice centre-back in England,” explained Heidel. Another loan should therefore be possible. “We would need the player’s agreement for that and we’ve got it.”

A long conversation with Gruda

Van den Berg’s position is the only one in the squad that needs to be filled now, according to Heidel. “That doesn’t mean that we won’t do anything else if something crops up. We will go into the season with a small squad and accept all the risks that come with that. We’ve not got any other choice though,” said Heidel. The 05ers’ squad currently consists of 24 outfielders and three goalkeepers. “We’ll have to see if that remains the same. It’s a new season now. Everybody here will get the chance to impress. Everybody can work hard and show us what they’re capable of. There are perhaps some players that want to leave and they can talk with other clubs, that’s totally normal,” said Heidel, who also discussed Brajan Gruda.

“We’d be delighted if he plays for us this season. We had a long conversation with him and spoke about everything,” stated Heidel. “He’s got two weeks off now and will then return here and start training. We’re more than relaxed about this situation. Brajan wants to play football and he needs to at his age. The best club he could be at for that is Mainz 05.”

Sano: Close contact to Okazaki

Kaishu Sano, a 23-year-old central midfielder, has put pen to paper on a deal until 2028 with the 05ers, having spent the last year and a half at J-League side Kashima Antlers. The Japan international has been brought in as a replacement for Leandro Barreiro, who departed for Benfica at the end of last season having been a key player in Bo Henriksen’s side that heroically managed to avoid the drop.

According to Heidel, Sano is well-known in Japan, with Mainz having observed the player closely over the last six months. “We knew for a while that Leo was going to leave the club. We were looking for a specific type of player and believe that we’ve found exactly who we’re looking for. Kaishu spent half of Wednesday here at the Bruchweg. He’s a very confident young man. We immediately had the feeling that he believes in himself, just as we do. In terms of the position he plays and his style of play, he shares some similarities with Leo, but he isn’t exactly the same. He brings his own skillset to the table, especially on the ball. Anyone who knows Japanese football well immediately mentioned Sano after being asked if they knew of any strong defensive midfielders. As has been the case with other Japanese players that have come here, there is a bit of a language barrier, but we have experience in this area and a Japanese community here. Shinji Okazaki will also return to Mainz in early August, and they will then be in close contact again. I think it goes without saying that Sano will be able to settle in well here. He’s a very extroverted person. We’ve had several video calls with him recently with the help of an interpreter, and we discussed many things. It felt very natural,” said the Heidel. After spending 10 years playing in the Premier League, Okazaki, a former goalscorer and fan favourite at Mainz, will be returning to the area as a coach with FC Basara Mainz, a club he helped found.