A 29-man squad will travel to Gais on Sunday morning for seven days of hard work at Eintracht’s second pre-season training camp. As well as training sessions, the Eagles will take part in two friendlies against Serie A sides Empoli (Wednesday 1 August) and SPAL (Saturday 4 August).
New fitness coach on board
Marc Stendera, Branimir Hrgota, Nelson Mandela Mbouhom and Daichi Kamada are not travelling to Italy and will instead stay in Frankfurt and train under the guidance of technical director Marco Pezzaiuoli. Goalkeeper Jan Zimmermann, however, has been included in the squad after fully recovering from his recent injury.
Fitness coach Werner Leuthard will also be in Gais after joining Eintracht’s backroom staff. The 56-year-old has an impressive CV in professional sport, including Bundesliga experience at Bayern Munich, Schalke 04, Stuttgart and Wolfsburg, as well as four years with the German Fed Cup team that contained Steffi Graf and Anke Huber. His most recent job was at Swiss club Basel.
Leuthard has now come to Frankfurt in search of a new challenge. “Werner Leuthard is a luminary in this important area of professional sport, particularly when it comes to the prevention of muscular injuries,” said sporting director Bruno Hübner. “That’s very important during this stage of pre-season and in general these days, especially considering we’re playing in three competitions.” Leuthard has agreed a fixed-term contract of one year.
