Werder Bremen sporting chief Clemens Fritz has offered up some interesting comments on his club’s business operations during the ongoing January transfer window. Werder’s Deichstube online fan portal finally saw fit to ask Fritz why he and his staff initially falsely assumed that they had reached their official limits of loan signings. Fritz made the error when speaking to Germany’s Sport Bild tabloid in December.
Fritz and his staff initially operated on the assumption that their six active loan players didn’t allow them to sign any more players on loan. The presence of Karl Hein (Arsenal), Maximilian Wöber, Isaac Schmidt (both Leeds), Yukinari Sugawara (Southampton), Cameron Puertas (Al-Qadsiah), and Victor Boniface (Leverkusen) led Fritz and the club front office to believe that they had exhausted their loan options in the summer.
In what was a rather embarrassing external scoop, Germany’s transfermarkt.de had to correct Fritz and sporting director Peter Niemeyer. DFL rules and FIFA starts actually stipulate that no Bundesliga club may take on six loan players from within the Bundesliga. A club can loan six national and six international players at the same time. Given that that only Boniface was on loan from a Bundesliga club meant that further loans were possible.
Fritz speaks on the mistake
“There was an internal communication on our part and we messed this up,” Fritz told Deichstube. “I take personal responsibility for this. We are profoundly irritated about this incident because it never should have happened.
“It is true that transfermarkt.de alerted us to the fact that our assumption was wrong,” Fritz revealed. “I then contacted the DFL to verify. We were informed by an external source that further loans were possible.“
Werder Bremen still looking to break ‘loan curse’
In a matter not entirely related to the mistake, Werder are still hoping to find success with attack-minded loans after a long list of attacking loan signings have flopped. The official closing of Boniface’s unfortunate Bremen chapter places the Nigerian with a cohort of players such as André Silva, Rafael Santos Borré, and Maximilian Phillipp who simply haven’t worked out in recent years.
Fritz and Werder are very much hoping that new Stuttgart loanee Jovan Milosevic bucks the trend. Milosevic logged 21 minutes as a substitute during Werder’s 3-0 away loss at Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night. Like everyone else on the team, Milosevic expressed frustration with Werder’s current form. Horst Steffen’s team are on a six-match-winless league winless run dating back to mid November 2025.
Werder Bremen at least close Naby Keïta chapter
Though former Liverpool man Naby Keïta technically does not belong to the “loan curse”, the Guinean international still counts as one of the biggest Bundesliga transfer flops in the last five years. Keïta technically returned from his loan club Ferencváros at the beginning of January, but there was never any chance that he would remain at Werder.
In the end, Keïta departs Werder the same way he came: on a free transfer. Keïta’s loan to the Hungarian outfit technically contained a purchase option, but Ferencváros had not intention of paying Werder €1.5m and taking on the 30-year-old’s salary. Instead, all parties involved have agreed to the termination of Keïta’s contract.
Ferencváros have taken Keïta back on a new deal.
