“Clemens has developed extremely positively in the last six years. He is very ambitious and successfully completed an international degree alongside his duties at Werder following his graduate programme. He’s made big developmental steps both as head of scouting and director of professional football. Therefore, he has been given more and more responsibility. This positive development and the very good impression he gave in the application process have encouraged us to fully entrust him with the step into senior management. We know that the sporting department is in good hands,” Dr. Hess-Grunewald went on to say.

Clemens Fritz spoke about the decision shortly after it was made and cast an optimistic glance towards the future: “I’m really happy about the decision the supervisory board have made and the trust that they’ve placed in me. I’ve worked closely with Frank Baumann over the past six years and have played an increasingly active role in the club’s sporting setup. I’m very thankful to Frank for that. I’m looking forward to this new assignment and I’m full of motivation – but I also respect the scale of the task at hand. We’ve made great progress at Werder over the past few years. I’m convinced we will continue this upward trend as a team alongside my fellow managing directors.”

In autumn of last year, Frank Baumann informed the SV Werder supervisory board that he would not be continuing in his role as managing director for sport. The supervisory board then initiated a selection process to find his successor, which has now concluded six weeks prior to the original targeted deadline.