Paul Fernie: „Max and Tim are an ideal example of our approach to allowing young players to gain early experience in the senior team via the U21s. Both have shown, both there and with the first team, that they have great potential and are extremely willing to learn. We are delighted to be able to offer two players from our youth academy the opportunity to move even closer to the professional level and continue their development there.“
Arnold, who has been active in the Lilies‘ youth academy since the U11s, was in Florian Kohfeldt’s squad six times in the last second-division season and regularly participated in the first-team training sessions. Pfister, who transferred from the 1. FSV Mainz 05 youth team to the Darmstadt youth academy in 2022, also completed numerous sessions with the second-division team and traveled to training camps with the first-team players both in the summer and winter.
Although both players were eligible to play for SV 98’s U19 team last season, they played almost all of their games for the U21 team in the Hessenliga. Arnold (born in 2006) played 26 games there, while Pfister (born in 2007) appeared in 27 matches and also played two games for the U19 team in the DFB-Nachwuchsliga (German Youth League).
