VfB Stuttgart and Their Well Renowned Youth System

VfB Stuttgart are a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Germany. Although the club competes at amateur level in a range of other sports, it’s best known for its football team, which competes at the highest level in Germany’s top flight, the Bundesliga. They play their home games at the 60,000+ capacity Mercedes-Benz Arena. VfB Stuttgart are no strangers to

achievements and have won the German national championship 5 times, most recently in the 2006-07 season. They have won the German Cup three times and the German Super Cup once in 1992.

Its stadium has recently been renovated to become a football-only stadium, taking its capacity up from 55,000 to over 60,000. It also boasts a junior training facility with natural grass pitches, a mini stadium, 7-a-side pitches and a goalkeeper training area.

VfB Stuttgart haven’t had a great season so far, but the future looks bright. Currently situated in 12th place in the Bundesliga with 26 games played but only six points off a Europa League spot and just seven points off a Champions League qualifying place. It doesn’t look so bad for Die Schwaben but it’s best not to get your hopes up too much for a team who have struggled with inconsistency in recent years.

Well known for starting off the season slow and getting things together in the Rückrunde, if Stuttgart provide consistency in both parts of the season then they have potential to be contenders to qualify for the Champions League once again. There’s no doubt that VfB have one of the best teams in the Bundesliga and should be up there competing with the best, but it’s the overall squad that lacks strength in depth. Players like Sven Ulreich, Serdar Tasci, William Kvist, Martin Harnik and Vedad Ibisevic all deserve to be playing on a high level at a European stage, and I believe that in the coming years at Stuttgart they will be.

VfB Stuttgart are well known for producing many fantastic young players through their youth system which has a very high reputation. The club currently has more than 60 players in all three Bundesligen in Germany. This makes VfB Stuttgart the most successful youth academy in Germany as no other club can match that number. In Stuttgart the main purpose is to produce top talent for the first team. They are able to keep a lot of players in house or trade their talent to other clubs. For that reason the club doesn’t have to spent high transfer sums for outside players, something which they couldn’t afford anyways so a good youth team is needed. Thomas Ahlbeck, youth manager, proudly named Mario Gomez, Sami Khedira and Timo Hildebrand as just a few examples for Stuttgart’s Talent-Schmiede. Exciting young players currently forcing a breakthrough in the first team include the likes of Raphael Holzhauser, Kevin Stöger, Daniel Didavi and Rani Khedira. Bruno Labbadia is very happy to be working with a club with such a successful youth system as it in turn gives him many options for his first team.

VfB Stuttgart II, who are currently in the 3rd tier of German football, serves as VfB Stuttgart’s reserve team to an extent. The team’s backbone consists of recent graduates from Stuttgart’s youth teams and several established, older players who are not good enough for Stuttgart’s first team. Players that are particularly impressive at Stuttgart II are often called up to become permanent members of the first-team.

VfB have already signed two players for the upcoming season – Energie Cottbus goalkeeper Thorsten Kirschbaum and Greuther Fürth winger Sercan Sararer. I think the signing of Sararer is a good one as Stuttgart need a winger and I rate him highly as a player. He posses plenty of pace and has good dribbling skills, also capable of having a pop at goal from outside the box and he’s a cool finisher in front of goal. He’s a young Turkish International with plenty of years ahead of him – He could turn out to be a fantastic signing for Die Roten.

As there’s not much money in the bank for VfB Stuttgart to spend, they can’t make many big name signings. This results in relying heavily on the youth team, but something Sporting Director Fredi Bobic has coped well with so far. He’s a football man and that’s what you want your main men at the club to be. Current President Gerd E. Mäuser has been recently criticized for showing a lack of leadership. The ‘Ultras’ fans of Stuttgart are not afraid to voice their opinion. Former President Erwin Staudt, who spend 8 years in charge, has been linked with a return to the Presidential role on an interim basis. Something that the fans would welcome.

The season is far from over and European football next season is the main priority for VfB Stuttgart. This looks very likely as they play SC Freiburg in the DFB Pokal semi-final and the winner of that game will most likely get a Europa League qualifying place, taking into account that FC Bayern will beat VfL Wolfsburg in the other semi-final. A place in the Europa League means extra money and the ability to attract better players to come to the club. They will want to finish as high up in the Bundesliga table as possible to improve the stature of the club ahead of the coming years. They will definetly be a team to look out for in the next few years as the future looks very bright for VfB Stuttgart.