Bundesliga
Bremen banking on Eggestein brothers
If you listen very carefully, you can probably still hear the echoes of the Werder Bremen board members slapping themselves heartily on the back for a job well done. And rightly so, for in the space of just a few days they secured long-term contract extensions for both Maximilian and Johannes Eggestein.
Erm… who? The brothers may not yet be household names outside of Germany, but they have been making waves across the Bundesliga this season – to such an extent that Bremen felt the need to hand them new deals to ward off the ever growing queue of high-profile suitors.
This week the ink finally dried on their contracts as Johannes' long-term extension was announced, before older brother Maximilian followed suit two days later.
Watch: Maximilian Eggestein's January Goal of the Month winner
"It's no secret that I feel really good here," said 22-year-old Maximilian. "As a team and as a club we've set ourselves ambitious objectives and I want to contribute to us reaching those objectives, as well as continuing the development I've had here in the last few years."
Johannes, two years his junior, struck a similar chord: "I've always said that I want to keep progressing at Werder and it's been very positive in that regard over the last few months and years. It was time to make a decision and I like it here at Werder and in Bremen and I'm convinced I can become a better Bundesliga player here over the coming years."
As adept as the siblings are at saying the right things, so too are they at doing the right things on the pitch. Maximilian made his Bundesliga debut in 2014/15, but it wasn't until this season that he really made his breakthrough in the first team, establishing himself as an irreplaceable member of the starting XI. He has only missed seven minutes of league action this term; only Czech right-back Theodor Gebre Selassie has played more for Bremen so far.
It's easy to see why coach Florian Kohfeldt leans so heavily on the elder Eggestein. Able to play in defensive or attacking midfield, the Bremen No.35 regularly covers more ground than anyone else on the pitch (he averages close to 7.5 miles per game) and has a personal best five goals and three assists this season.
Indeed, so impressive has he been, that Joachim Löw called him up to the senior squad for the first time ever in March. "He's playing very consistently and I think he's very mature for his age," Löw said. "He's a player we have a good feeling about."
Johannes may not be quite as far along in his development, but if the past is anything to go by it won't be long before he catches up with his older brother. After all, in 2017 they became just the second sibling pair ever to start a game for Germany's U21s, eight years after Jerome and Kevin-Prince Boateng did so.
And whereas Maximilian is a midfielder, Johannes is a striker. Quick, agile and with a natural-born talent for finding the net, he has more Bundesliga starts (10) and appearances (20) this season than ever before, registering three goals and one assist.
"It wasn't easy for him to step up to the Bundesliga from the youth team but he's always believed in the path we had for him," Kohfeldt said. "He's a very intelligent player with a goalscoring instinct. We think he's going to play a big role in our future plans."
With Bremen eighth in the table, pushing for European qualification next term and the only Bundesliga team to have found the net in every game this season, things were already looking bright for Kohfeldt's side. And now that the Eggestein's have signed on for a few more years, the future bodes well too.