Friedrich and Zimmer join Energie

FC Energie Cottbus have announced the two key appointments behind the scenes, in what appeared to signal a cultural shift at the club. In a statement on the clubs official website, they have confirmed the appointment of Arne Friedrich as Director of Football and Maximilian Zimmer as their new Technical Director.

Friedrich, capped 82 times by Germany, has been out of work since leaving his role as Sporting Director at Hertha Berlin in 2022. He has been charged with the task of overhauling the clubs scouting and recruitment processes.

"I'm delighted to be here." beams Friedrich, speaking at a press conference at the Stadion der Freundschaft. "This is a really interesting project. The team has done brilliantly in the last two years, and I'm looking forward to helping build towards an exciting future."

"We don't have the same resources as other clubs in the division, so we have to be smart. Part of my role is building a database of players, and putting together a team to identify and recruit players who can help us improve."

Our source inside the club has confirmed that Friedrich is championing the use of data, with Energie keen to move to a more analytics-based approach to their player recruitment.

"We have a promising young Head Coach who has clear ideas on how he wants his teams to play, so that is a great start. My job is to support him by building a squad who can play his style of football, and let him focus on his strength - which is coaching the team."

Sebastien Meyer has spoken previously of the difficulty of juggling the task of recruiting with his work on the training ground.

"Another big part of my role will be ensuring we generate revenue through our player trading. We want to be a place for players to come and develop, and part of that is selling players for profit which can be re-invested into the team."

"That includes our B team. We want to use the B team as part of the pathway between the academy and the first-team, but also as an opportunity to develop talented players from elsewhere that have yet to fulfil their potential."

Energie Cottbus II will compete in the North Eastern Regionalliga this season.

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Max Zimmer, a former Energie Cottbus player, returns to the club in his new role as Technical Director. He has a broader role of implementing a "culture of development" at Energie Cottbus, to include development of training facilities, coach education and academy recruitment.

"We want to bring a culture of development to Energie Cottbus. We want a high performance environment from the first-team through to the academy. I'll be in charge of hiring the coaching and technical staff, developing the clubs training facilities and developing our staff."

"Another huge part of my job will be improving the processes in the youth academy, and creating opportunities for our young players to come into the first-team. The goal for us is to have a significant portion of our first-team squad to be made up of academy players."

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"I'm delighted with the news of these appointments." said Head Coach Sebastien Meyer via a statement on the clubs website. "This will help the club push onto the next level, and allow me to focus on what I love doing - coaching the team."