Pre-season is heating up for the boys from Cannstatt: Just a few days after the start of training, the first friendly of the summer kicks off at 15:00 CEST on Saturday. The DFB Cup winners travel to the Max-Graser-Stadion to take on local side SV Fellbach, who play in the Verbandsliga Württemberg (sixth tier).
The pre-season programme
The JAKO friendly match in Fellbach will see VfB get fully up and running in their preparations for the 2025/26 campaign. Further friendlies are planned against Spanish UEFA Europa League participants Celta Vigo on Saturday 26 July in Reutlingen, and on 9 August against Italian cup winners Bologna in Stuttgart – the official season-opening event. In between that, Sebastian Hoeneß’s side head to Lake Tegernsee for a training camp from 28 July to 3 August. The first competitive match of the new season takes place on 16 August with the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup against Bayern Munich at the MHP Arena.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun”
“You’ll be able to see during the friendly how happy we are to be back on the pitch together,” said forward Justin Diehl. “The break has done us good, but it was also long and I think we all missed each other. We’re all really looking forward to the new season. This game is going to be a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to meeting up with lots of VfB fans again.”
The squad
Fans will get a first glimpse of summer signings Lorenz Assignon and Lazar Jovanovic in the new VfB shirt in Fellbach. Noah Darvich (muscular problems) is set to begin full training next week. Leonidas Stergiou, Juan Perea, Silas and Jacob Bruun Larsen are sidelined through injury, while Enzo Millot is absent due to personal reasons.
Alexander Nübel, Maximilian Mittelstädt, Deniz Undav and Ermedin Demirovic will report for pre-season this weekend following international duty in June, but won’t feature in Fellbach. Nick Woltemade is expected to return to the team for the start of the training camp after his involvement in the U21 EURO.
Live stream
The match against SV Fellbach will be shown live on YouTube and VfB-TV, with the stream beginning around 10 minutes before kick-off.
