Sporting director Sven Mislintat: “Holger Badstuber wore the VfB shirt as a youth and first-team player, and enjoyed remarkable success at both club and international level during his career. As a member of our promoted side last season, he played a role in helping us achieve direct promotion back to the Bundesliga. His footballing attributes and easy-going nature made Holger an important part of our game in recent years. Looking ahead to next season and beyond, we’ve decided to make personnel changes to our squad and rely more heavily on other players in defence. For this ongoing process, we feel it’s necessary and sensible to have an appropriate squad size. As such, Holger will be training with our Under-21s for the foreseeable future. We’ve made Holger fully aware of this decision, which was made purely for sporting reasons.”
Holger Badstuber: “VfB’s sporting management have informed me that I’ll be training with the second team from now on. I accept the decision, even if I find it difficult because I’m convinced that I can help the club at Bundesliga level. I’ve accepted this new challenge so that we can all make the best of the situation for the good of the club.”