After the Europa League first leg against RC Lens, Yannik Keitel announced that he would be leaving SC Freiburg in the summer. Is he drawn to VfB Stuttgart?
Yannik Keitel had two reasons to celebrate. Freiburg’s head coach Christian Streich gave the central midfielder a very special gift on his 24th birthday on Thursday and surprisingly placed him at the back of the back three in the Europa League play-off game against RC Lens. Keitel had two days to prepare for this task and train for the position – with success.
He played a great game, Yannik. Terrific.
Keitel benefits from Freiburg’s bad luck with injuries
After the 0-0 draw in Lens, his coach was full of praise for his protégé’s performance. Due to the failures of the central defender duo Matthias Ginter and Philipp Lienhart, Streich decided to move Keitel from the six-man position to central defense because of his ball security. His biggest concern was that Keitel would lose his nerve on his central defender debut due to the lack of match practice in this special stadium.
Cauldron Stade Bollaert-Delelis
In Lens everything is a little different than at normal away games. The club anthem is played during half-time, the fan block is not behind the goal, but at the center line and in the mining region there are often more fans in the stadium than there are residents in the city. Freiburg’s captain Christian Günter spoke before the game of a real cauldron.
However, Keitel was not impressed by this and acted confidently in the opening game as well as in duels and positional play. As if he had never played any other position.
Keitel thrives against Lens
After conceding nine goals in three games, Freiburg played to a clean sheet against Lens for the first time. In general, the defense didn’t allow much compared to the previous encounters, also thanks to Keitel.
In the 23rd minute of the game, the German U21 international thwarted a great opportunity with a spectacular tackle in the penalty area. Almost ten minutes later, he passed the entire opposing defense from the halfway line, leaving Ritsu Doan alone in front of the goal.
The last few weeks have been hard for me.
Keitel was not in the squad for the last three Bundesliga games
There are difficult times ahead for the trained midfielder. Keitel struggled with many injury problems. He was not in the squad for the last three Bundesliga games. The last time he was on the pitch for two minutes was on January 20th against TSG Hoffenheim.
A decision has apparently already been made as to what will happen next in Yannik Keitel’s footballing future. The 24-year-old is repeatedly linked to VfB Stuttgart. When asked whether people in Swabia were happy about his strong performance, Keitel laughed extensively and initially reacted somewhat cautiously. “First of all, I’m happy that I was able to play again and help my team. We’ll see everything else later.”
Keitel announces change
When asked whether the deal with VfB Stuttgart was already in place, the former U21 national player answered surprisingly specifically: “I’ll definitely no longer be at SC Freiburg in the summer.” The farewell tour in Freiburg has already begun for Yannik Keitel. He will leave the club after 13 years. Before that, he would like to play as much as possible after the hard weeks without playing.
On Sunday, SC Freiburg will face Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. Keitel will most likely play in central defense. Next Thursday, the Freiburg team want to make it into the round of 16 in the second leg of the Europa League in their own stadium. Hopefully with a strong Yannik Keitel again. Perhaps he will attract the attention of other clubs with such performances as in the first leg.