Led by Oliver Otto, a team of three social education workers, a chef, a housekeeper and eight teachers look after the development of the students on a sporting, educational and human level in a tailored environment. The youngsters are required to follow clearly defined rules in terms of behaviour and cooperation.
After school, training and meals together, the young athletes can either retire to their 18 m² bedrooms or head to the common room and play table football or table tennis. The most outstanding feature of the facilities is undoubtedly Stuttgart’s highest artificial pitch with floodlights, located on the roof of the Carl Benz Center, allowing students to spend their evenings playing football and football-tennis, trying out new tricks and improving their techniques.
The VfB part-time school, VfB Campus and other accommodation
In light of the significant increase in cooperation with schools in recent years, VfB has rented additional accommodation options, with extra places now available at Stuttgart’s Olympic Training Centre. For some players however, the security of a family environment is of particular importance, and as such, host families form another crucial type of accommodation to ensure that talented youngsters are looked after in the best possible way. VfB works with various families which live close to the club’s facilities and who can integrate VfB players into their everyday lives.
To ensure that all youth players are cared for in the best way possible, the club founded the VfB part-time school in summer 2009. Youngsters arrive at the VfB Club Centre in the afternoon to do their homework and prepare for their classes the next day. They can also relax in the ‘Chill-out lounge’, listen to music, have something to eat and drink or have a sleep in the special rest room. VfB also collaborated with the Kolping-Bildungswerk educational organisation during the 2017/18 academic year to create the VfB Campus, where youth players are taught three times a week by teachers from the Kolping Academy in Fellbach in the VfB Club Centre facilities and at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
Ideal combination of school, sport and leisure
Around 70 VfB youth players attend one of the three DFB-certified elite football schools – the Cotta School, the Linden High School and the Wirtemberg Grammar School – or the VfB Kolping Academy partner school in Fellbach, where they receive an ideal education that is tailored to the demands of training. As many as seven teachers are also on hand on working days at the part-time school to provide intensive support for students. Youth educational training is afforded as much importance by the club as sporting and personal development. Students can go home to their families on weekends when there are no matches to maintain a familiar environment, since the security of family combined with ideal sport-related support are the two keys to success.