Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Whitecaps Add Hertha Midfielder to Camp

As first reported by Marc Weber in Phoenix, the organization has brought in German midfielder Lennart Hartmann for trial, a day after a Canadian midfielder left the Whitecaps for Europe .  The U19 national player was released from Hertha BSC to look for another team as his contract was set to expire this summer.  His former manager at Hertha, Micheal Preetz, stated in this article that it was a tough decision but there was too much competition on the club’s roster for his position.

Hartmann is listed as a defensive midfielder, stands at 5’8” and has been capped 30 times for the U16, U17, and U19 national squads.  At the age of 17, he made his debut for the senior Hertha squad in the Bundesliga when he came in as a substitute.  He will make his debut in the exhibition versus Real Salt Lake on Tuesday.


While there are plenty of central midfielders on the Caps roster, Hartman’s main competition will be with international players Alex Morfaw and Gershon Koffie.  The Whitecaps have ten international spots and while one has yet to used, there is an assumption that five spots are spoken for (Chiumiento, Akloul, Stewart, Khalfan, Boxall).  There has been talk of a couple of international strikers being brought in which leaves 2-3 spots open.

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