Table tennis talent Andre Bertelsmeier is moving to TSV Bad Königshofen.

Of course, Andreas Albert was somehow happy at the time; the audience in Linz was literally freaking out with enthusiasm. On the other hand, the boy didn’t have to do it so well at the table tennis table – in front of everyone! “Great,” the team manager grumbled before the live stream, “now the whole league will be after him…”

Even before that individual European Championship in October, Andre Bertelsmeier had been considered an outstanding German talent, but Albert’s Franconian first division club, TSV Bad Königshofen, was still very much in the running to sign the teenager, who was playing for the 1st team in the second division .FC Köln plays and turned 19 a few weeks ago. Even in front of some of the more wealthy competitors, but nothing had been signed yet.

And then Bertelsmeier not only fought his way through qualification at his first adult European Championships in Linz, no, he made headlines with a win against the Romanian Ovidiu Ionescu, the European Championship runner-up in 2018. And instead of then at least secretly, quietly and To say goodbye quietly to the favorite Felix Lebrun, he forced France’s star into extra time in three out of five sets after losing 4-1 in the round of 16. Lebrun is even a little younger than Bertelsmeier, but had just won bronze at the Olympics in Paris and is already the best European in the world rankings. The young German didn’t win the set in any way, but with a spectacular emergency strike that now belongs in every well-stocked review of the year: He stunned Lebrun with a hit behind his back.

Albert’s worries were not unfounded: the first division teams, including record champions Borussia Düsseldorf, are said to have courted Bertelsmeier. But it has been official since Friday: the right-hander with red-blonde hair, who was born in Hamm, has decided on Lower Franconia. Tomasz Kasica, who made the first contact as TSV’s new brand developer, confirms this and says: “It’s a very hyped change. There has been a lot of speculation about it, and we are pleased that he is coming to us for two years.” Bertelsmeier appeared all alone for the crucial conversation with the three-person management of TSV in Düsseldorf, where he is training at the performance center. Albert reported that they were able to tell him about Darko Jorgic, who also started his first professional career in Bad Königshofen at the age of 18, and promised him that he too could develop further here without pressure. Bertelsmeier had already noticed the famously euphoric TSV fans.

At the Junior World Championships he reached the quarter-finals, and coach’s daughter Itagaki even won a medal

In Bad Königshofen he is to take over the place of the Japanese Jin Ueda, who will be leaving the Franconians after two years to start working as an association coach in his home country. The contract with TSV veteran Bastian Steger, 43, is to be extended. Like Bertelsmeier, Steger trains in Düsseldorf, so an ideal training and carpool is emerging, which would also include Kilian Ort, provided that the TSV homegrown player, who has been slowed down by a damaged disc, manages to return to professional sport. Albert likes Bertelsmeier’s “brutal forehand” and his good nerves, which let him not shy away from taking risks even in tight situations, while Kasica emphasizes his “spectacular game system on both sides” and an “unbelievable development”. This has already brought him to position 115 in the world. “We are absolutely convinced of him,” says Kasica.

At the European Championships in Linz, Bertelsmeier also reached the round of 16 in mixed doubles and doubles with Mia Griesel and Fanbo Meng. He had previously won silver with the team at the U19 European Championships and individual bronze at the U21 European Championships, and the Junior World Championships had just ended in Helsingborg, Sweden, where Bertelsmeier, who graduated from high school in the spring and is planning to study, was eliminated in the quarterfinals . The daughter of his future club coach Koji Itagaki did even better at the World Cup: 14-year-old Koharu Itagaki, who competed in the women’sBundesliga for Dachau, won bronze in the U15 age group after a hard-fought semi-final against a Chinese woman.