FIRST TEAM
05/08/2012

Tschüss, Ciao, Goodbye!

Three first team players are due to leave TSG 1899 Hoffenheim this summer. Goalkeeper Daniel Haas and defender Andreas Ibertsberger will depart the club when their contracts expire, while Croatian striker Srdjan Lakic will return to VfL Wolfsburg after his loan spell in Sinsheim comes to an end.

Daniel Haas

Haas is one of just three current players to have been at the club while it was still playing in the Regionalliga, now the Third Division (the others being Sejad Salihovic and Matthias Jaissle). He joined TSG in the summer of 2005 and went on to appear 35 times in the top flight after making his Bundesliga debut for Hannover 96 in May 2004. He has found first team opportunities hard to come by in more recent years, playing understudy to Tom Starke. His only league appearance this season was against Borussia Mönchengladbach in October.

Andreas Ibertsberger

The flame-haired Austrian utility man has been a fixture at Hoffenheim for four and a half seasons and played an integral part in the club gaining promotion to the Bundesliga in 2008, as well as being crowned ‘Autumn Champions' by finishing top of the league at the half-way stage of the campaign later that year. Injuries have hampered his progress at TSG – he missed the vast majority of this season with a chronic back problem – and restricted him to just 68 league games in total. His only appearance this season came in a 1-1 draw at home to 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

Srdjan Lakic

Lakic's time at Hoffenheim has been a short affair. He moved to Sinsheim from VfL Wolfsburg on a six-month loan deal in January after struggling at the Volkswagen Arena following a high-profile transfer from Kaiserslautern last summer. An unfortunate ankle injury suffered in the 1-1 draw at home to 1. FC Köln in early March ruled him out for five matches and effectively ended any chances of him gaining a solid run in the team. He managed just seven appearances in the league for 1899 without finding the scoresheet, and will return to Wolfsburg for the start of the new season in July.

We wish all three players the best in their future careers.

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