Freiburg's Schmidt: New start in Düsseldorf?

At the beginning of April against Dresden: Kenneth Schmidt only played for the U23 team in the 3rd division in Hanover. IMAGO/Noah Wedel

Almost every professional footballer will remember the opponent they faced in their professional debut for life. But very few players in this country can casually name a world-class foreign club. Kenneth Schmidt can: Juventus Turin! He didn't face the northern Italians in a friendly, though, but in a crucial fixture.

In the second leg of the Europa League round of 16 in March 2023, Schmidt came on in the second half in his hometown of Freiburg with the score at 0-1. Two more goals and extra time would have been needed. Christian Streich's team couldn't manage that, conceding a final score of 0-2 shortly before the final whistle. But with a courageous performance and their own chances, they weren't far from causing an upset. Schmidt also contributed to this with a calm, remarkably secure performance defensively (kicker rating of 3).

Shortly thereafter, the central defender was given the opportunity to make his debut for the German U-21 national team. And in the Bundesliga. Coach Christian Streich played him five times by the end of the season, including three times in the starting eleven. Sport-Club finished fifth, and Schmidt played at least a small part in that.

The following season, Schmidt was substituted on five times in the Bundesliga until November 2023, but failed to impress in his extended, admittedly thankless appearance in the 5-0 defeat at Stuttgart (kicker rating 5), nor did he particularly impress in his starting appearance in the Europa League in the 3-2 win in Piraeus (rating 4), when he only lasted about 60 minutes. He was in the starting eleven for the U21s three more times in September and October.

A bitter setback followed at the end of November: an abdominal muscle injury that sidelined him for the rest of the season. The same area of ​​his body caused problems again in October 2024. This is one of the reasons why Schmidt's brief appearance in mid-November 2023 in the 3-1 defeat at Leipzig will likely be his last appearance for the Freiburg pros for the time being.

In the first half of the 2024/25 season, the left-footer only made it into the first team's matchday squad once under new coach Julian Schuster, played only five times for the U23s in the Regionalliga Südwest and is therefore expected to make a new start on loan in Hanover from January 2025.

But bad luck continued to follow Schmidt. Due to an infection, he missed parts of the winter preseason and subsequently barely made it into the 96 first team. He made the matchday squad twice – that was it. The defender only wore the Hannover jersey in seven third-division matches for the U23s, and to make matters worse, he also suffered a medial knee ligament injury at the end of April, ending his season.

And now? Is it time for another fresh start, even though the loan with 96 was originally agreed for one and a half years until 2026? This time, Schmidt will likely distance himself from his hometown and regular club , SC Freiburg , where he started in the youth system as a 15-year-old, and seek a permanent transfer. According to information from kicker, a hot lead leads to Hannover's league rivals, Fortuna Düsseldorf .

In any case, Schmidt could really use the goddess of luck from the Rhinelanders' club name to give new impetus to his still young, but already stalled, career.