Düsseldorf ahead of year one without Boll: “Playing for all titles again”

18 years after the start of the Timo Boll era at Borussia Düsseldorf, the record table tennis champions appear to be prepared for the inevitable break without the German icon. Shortly before Boll's final career end, the Rhinelander's new personnel tableau is ready for the upcoming new beginning - also by making use of the German naturalization laws for the first time.

“Kanak Jha will be a very valuable player with a German passport,” said Düsseldorf's manager Andreas Preuß in an interview with SID on the novelty in Düsseldorf's club history with the transfer of the US-American coming from league rivals TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt, ”because this means that an Asian can also play at any time.”

The corresponding application from the Californian, who has lived in Germany for over seven years, has been with the relevant authorities since December. “We hope that the positive decision will be made by the start of the season in August,” says Preuß.

This practice, which in the past has usually only been used by financially weak upstarts, will see the three-time Olympic participant replace Boll in Düsseldorf's top duo of former European champion Dang Qiu and Swedish Olympic team silver medallist Anton Källberg. For the planned permanent filling of the foreigner position, Düsseldorf recruited the Chinese player Li Yongyin from Borussia Dortmund, who is not internationally active.

“Even without his transfer to us, Kanak would have applied for naturalization. But now we can cope even better with the pressures of international table tennis,” said Preuß, explaining the planning.

However, not all of Borussia's wishes on the transfer market were fulfilled: The 19-year-old European Championship round of 16 finalist Andre Bertelsmeier, who had been considered a candidate to take the place of the departing national player Kay Stumper (to first division team Post SV Mühlhausen), turned down the opportunity and signed with league rivals TSV Bad Königshofen.

However, Preuß is already flirting with a new opportunity to continue the club's philosophy of promoting local talent: “We will certainly talk again in the future.”

Despite the upheaval and Boll's departure, Düsseldorf's standards remain high. Preuß leaves no doubt about that ahead of the first quarter-final duel in the Champions League on Friday at French top favorites AN Montpellier: “We've been in a similar situation a few times before and still always come back in the end. It will still be difficult to get past Düsseldorf, because we are absolutely competitive and will be able to play for all the titles again.”

Source: SID
Featured image above: Andreas Preuß (Photo: BeLa Sportfoto)