Not every SC first-team player was back in Breisgau, however, with those on international duty after the end of the domestic season only set to join up with the rest of the squad next week. That meant it was a fairly small group of players that met up for Monday’s session. Just twelve outfield players and two goalkeepers – including the returning Florian Müller – ran laps under the watchful eyes of the coaching staff, a number of fans and the media present at the training ground. “There aren’t that many players here yet because the internationals need a reasonable break and that’s what they’re getting. We will add some players from the reserves tomorrow so that we can work on some drills,” explained head coach Christian Streich.

With a month and a half having passed since the last Freiburg game, there’s understandably a lot of excitement ahead of the new season among the fans, but the same goes for the players and staff: “Our number one priority is for the people here to be able to carry on watching Bundesliga football beyond this season. We’re determined to make that happen. Everything else depends on little things like injury luck or form,” was Streich’s view of the campaign ahead, which once again will see SC take part in the Europa League group phase.

While there was no transfer news as training resumed, there was a new introduction to the first team for the 2023/24 season, with academy product Max Rosenfelder joining the senior squad. The 20-year-old centre back as played for SC since 2014 and featured 40 times for the reserves in the 3. Liga last term. He has also played for Germany eight times between U16 and U19 level. Rosenfelder was born in Freiburg and joined the Football School from SC partner club Sportfreunde Eintracht Freiburg.

Jordy Makengo will also be training with the Bundesliga squad for the time being. Since joining SC Freiburg II from AJ Auxerre in 2021, the 21-year-old Frenchman has played 40 games for the U23s, mostly at left-back.

Another preseason opponent confirmed

Alongside the already confirmed preseason friendlies against Grasshopper Club Zurich in the Europa-Park Stadion (Saturday, 15th July at 16:00 CEST) and VfL Wolfsburg in Zams, Tyrol (Saturday, 22nd July at 14:00 CEST), SC will also play two 90-minute matches against Racing Strasbourg in Freiburg at 16:00 CEST and 18:00 CET on Saturday, 29th July.