As a child, Niklas Süle was a fan of Energie Cottbus and Tomislav Piplica

Central defender Niklas Süle from FC Bayern Munich has revealed that he kept his fingers crossed for Energie Cottbus as a child. The 25-year-old justified this with the goalkeeper at the time in Cottbus – but also with the stadium name.

“I think it was up to Tomislav Piplica, the goalkeeping legend, we all thought they were cool,” said Süle the club magazine 51 of FC Bayern. The Bosnian Piplica was between the posts of Energie Cottbus from 1998 to 2009, from 2000-2003 and 2006-2008 he made a total of 117 Bundesliga games.

In addition, Süle was impressed by the stadium name: “In addition, the stadium is called ‘Stadium of Friendship’ – the name fascinated me, I found it likeable,” he reported.

The Frankfurt-born national player also had a local favorite club: as a child, he and brother Fabian (28) slept in Eintracht Frankfurt bed linen.

Niklas Süle was active in the youth there from 2006 to 2009. Then it went to Darmstadt and Hoffenheim to FC Bayern in 2017. His contract there runs until summer 2022.