Seven players developed at SC Freiburg's academy have been named in Jürgen Klopp's 44-man Germany squad. The high number highlights the success of the club's football school, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this October. The national team coach explicitly praised the club's work. "Freiburg does it superbly and not just recently, but for a while now," said Klopp. The current SC Freiburg squad benefits directly from this philosophy and sits third in the Bundesliga table with ten points from four matches.
Among the 44 nominees for the upcoming internationals, Philipp Treu, Yannik Engelhardt, Max Rosenfelder and striker Derry Scherhant have received their first senior national team call-ups. All four are current SC Freiburg professionals. They are joined by four more graduates: Mika Baur (Celtic Glasgow), Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Kevin Schade (FC Brentford) and Noah Atubolu (Eintracht Frankfurt), who spent the major part of their training in Freiburg and took their first professional steps there. Together, Schlotterbeck, Schade and Atubolu have generated nearly 60 million euros in transfer fees for the club.
Around the year 2000, SC Freiburg was a club fluctuating between the first and second divisions. Under manager Andreas Rettig, the club invested approximately 20 million Deutschmarks in building the football school, an extraordinary commitment given an estimated annual turnover of 45 to 50 million Deutschmarks. "It was an extraordinary commitment to the motto 'stones instead of legs'," describes Jochen Saier, the current sporting director and head of the football school from 2003 to 2013. Volker Finke pushed the project forward despite the long wait for results. Freiburg was a pioneer in the subsequent boom of youth performance centres.
Long-time coach Christian Streich shaped the football school as a U19 coach and won the German U19 championship in 2008 with players including Oliver Baumann, Ömer Toprak and Nicolas Höfler. His philosophy still defines the club today. His successor Julian Schuster worked for six years as a liaison coach between the professionals, U23s and youth after his playing career before becoming head coach in 2024. The current success is also a result of this continuity. According to the club, 73 graduates have made their professional debut for Freiburg or been in the professional squad over 25 years. Currently, around 175 football students are training at the school, 16 of whom live in the boarding facility.
The paths of the nominees illustrate the Freiburg model. Philipp Treu and Yannik Engelhardt played together in the third-division team but were not yet considered ready for the professionals. Both left the club in 2023, Treu to St. Pauli, Engelhardt to Fortuna Düsseldorf. Freiburg later brought them back, paying 5.5 million euros for Treu in 2025 and 7.5 million euros for Engelhardt in the summer of 2024. An example of patient development is Johan Manzambi, who joined from Servette Genève at age 17, was developed gradually and transferred to Aston Villa in summer 2024 for a base fee of 63 million euros, the highest transfer fee ever received by the club.
Strength from the club's own youth is a cornerstone of the successful Bundesliga campaign. Following the 2-2 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt on the last matchday, the next fixture is at home against 11th-placed FC Schalke 04 on October 10th. The team is unbeaten in its last five competitive games. With four goals in four appearances, Yuito Suzuki is the current top scorer. The injury list shows only one name: Florent Muslija. The full squad and current fixtures are available online. Klopp summed up the Freiburg mentality by quoting Roberto De Zerbi: "People talk about mentality all the time. I just read it, I think De Zerbi said it: mentality cannot be bought." The seven nominees are the living proof.
Further reading: fussballnationalmannschaft.net
