The German Bundesliga gets under way this weekend with EHL KO16 Men’s teams Mannheimer HC and Hamburger Polo Club facing each other on Sunday afternoon.
The competition itself reverst back to its old format of 12 teams in an elite division with each side playing each other home and away across 22 rounds of matches; the top eight will advance to the playoffs.
For champions Mannheim, they enter the new season with a trio of strong additions with Junior World Cup winners Matteo Poljaric (from Berliner HC) and Ben Hasbach (Harvestehuder THC) joining along with Argentina international Thomas Habif (also HTHC) who joins his brother-in-law Gonzalo Peillat in the side.
Peillat, though, is the only one of MHC’s three German Olympic silver medalists likely to hit the turf this weekend. Teo Hinrichs has relocated to Barcelona for the time-being where he will play with Real Club de Polo while Justus Weigand is struggling with a foot injury.
With Danny Nguyen retiring and Hugo von Monteglas also recovering from an injury, it means there are a few challenges for their opening weekend.
They start their campaign on Saturday against newly promoted Großflottbek and then stay on in Hamburg for Sunday’s game against Polo.
Polo start their season on Saturday against Munich SC and bring a mix of international players and youngsters led by team captain Mathias Müller, a long time international player for the German national team, becoming World Champion in 2022 and also a two-time EHL winner with UHC and Rot Weiss.
Former members of the national team; Niklas Garst (3rd goalie for Germany), Constantin Staib, Niklas Bosserhoff and Paul-Philipp Kaufmann are other key men.
There is also a strong link with Oceania: Tom Craig and Tim Brand are 2 Australian Olympians representing Polo as well as New Zealanders Nic Woods, Kane Russell, Hugo Inglis and Sean Findlay.
Furthermore there is a good mix of talented guys like Benjamin Kölbl, Bjorn Szerdahelyi, Lukas Kossel and some experienced Bundesliga players like Leon Thörnblom (Austrian international, Indoor World Champion) and Jan Hendrik Bartels.
Tigges says of the challenge: “We are really looking forward competing in the EHL again and measuring ourselves with the rest of Europe.”
Departing from the club this season are Diede van Puffelen), Otto van Stechow (both to Grossflottbek), Tim Behrmann (to Munich SC) and Saul Esteve (to Spain).
In October’s EHL KO16, Mannheim will face AHTC Wien while Polo take on SV Arminen.
