“A visit like this is worth its weight in gold”

The cooperation agreement was officially announced in July 2024, accompanied by a “letter of support” and thus an official declaration of support from the cities of Darmstadt and San Antonio. The official starting signal for a cooperation that includes, for example, the promotion of young players, intensive intercultural and knowledge exchange in a wide variety of areas and has now been further filled with life at the beginning of 2025.

On January 20th, SV 98 welcomed two special guests to southern Hesse to introduce them to the world of the Lilies and the club’s structures. Marco Ferruzzi (Sporting Director) and Jose Lizardo (Operations Director) of San Antonio FC were welcomed by the Lilies on Monday afternoon and were given a small insight into Darmstadt culture in the evening. At a shared meal in the Ratskeller with Paul Fernie (Sports Director SV 98), Tom Eilers, Markus Pfitzner (Vice-President SV 98), Martin Kowalewski and Björn Müller, initial strategic topics were also discussed.

The exchange of content was intensified the next day. The plans for a soccer camp in San Antonio under the guidance of youth coaches from SV 98 were already finalised in the morning, and there was also discussion about the possible participation of SAFC youth players in the training operations at the Lilien Academy. “We want to bring SV 98 and their style of football closer to our community in San Antonio and at the same time learn from their expertise,” said Lizardo about the background to the cooperation in the youth sector.

After a visit to the DFB Academy in Frankfurt, Ferruzzi and Lizardo received a comprehensive insight into the conditions at the Böllenfalltor location. The extensive tour of the stadium, which was carried out by Eilers and Kowalewski, included not only the changing rooms, playing field and weight room, but also the offices of the function building and the business and hospitality areas of the main stand.

Martin Kowalewski: “Our exchange goes far beyond the playing field and also includes topics from marketing or merchandising. It’s nice to be able to show our guests the business and hospitality areas and at the same time it’s very exciting to pick up on the thoughts and ideas from the US market.”

Following his first visit to Bölle, Lizardo spoke of a “small vision” for the future of San Antonio FC and of many ideas that could find their way into the SAFC’s processes after returning to the USA. Ferruzzi was also “impressed” by the conditions at the Böllenfalltor and specified from a sports director’s perspective: “With the entire infrastructure here, the focus is on the player and the goal is that the players can do their work in the best possible way. This is an area in which we always want to develop further and are therefore very grateful for the impressions here on site.”

While Lizardo then set off for another appointment, Ferruzzi went to the Lilies‘ youth performance center, where a test match for the U21s was scheduled for the afternoon. Björn Müller also led the SAFC sports director through the Academy premises and gave insights into youth work and concepts at the Junglililien. “This exchange means great added value for me and being able to watch the SV 98 young players live in a game helps me a lot to better understand the work in the youth sector.”

Ferruzzi’s general conclusion about the trip to southern Hesse at the end of the packed day was also extremely positive: “Only through direct conversation do you really get to know people and understand the processes that take place within a club. We are a club that wants to grow, just like all of football in the USA. For these goals, a visit like this is worth its weight in gold.”

A positive feedback that Eilers was also able to fully confirm from Lilien’s side: “We were very pleased to be able to welcome Marco and Jose to Darmstadt for the first time. It was extremely interesting to see the motivation and ideas with which they came to us and the openness with which they would like to advance future joint projects. We noticed early on that both clubs, but also the entire Spurs Sports & Entertainment, shared many values ​​and had similar visions when it came to our collaboration. These impressions were confirmed once again during the visit and we are looking forward to the next steps of the partnership.“

The next chapter of the cooperation is already just around the corner. At the invitation of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, a delegation from the Lilies will travel to Paris on Thursday (January 23rd) to watch the San Antonio Spurs‘ NBA game against the Indiana Pacers and to have further appointments with SAFC representatives during the game , the SS&E and the city of San Antonio.

Lizardo: “We are very pleased to welcome some of the SV 98 club officials to the NBA game of our sister club San Antonio Spurs in Paris. We will definitely get to know each other better at this special event.”