Tohumcu and Quarshie training with the first team

Two talented young players Umut Tohumcu and Joshua Quarshie, both 18, are about to take the next steps in their development at TSG Hoffenheim. The two German youth international players will be training with the first team under head coach André Breitenreiter until further notice and will also go on the training camp planned for the beginning of January.

"Our door is always open to hungry young players from our own ranks. Both caught my eye through consistently good performances for the U23s and can now continue to show us what they can do and take the next steps," says Breitenreiter.

Alongside several call-ups to the first team squad, both Tohumcu and Quarshie have already tasted Bundesliga action. Umut Tohumcu made his Bundesliga debut on Matchday 34 last season in the away match in Mönchengladbach. Joshua Quarshie's debut in the top tier came only four weeks ago. He came on against VfL Wolfsburg in the PreZero Arena on Matchday 15 of the current season to get his first taste of action in the Bundesliga.

"This is the TSG way – we continue to consistently identify talented young players and carefully bring them through our academy step by step," says TSG director of professional football, Alexander Rosen. "It is not only because of the current personnel situation that you can safely assume that other young players will have the chance to show what they can do in the first team in the near future."

Umut Tohumcu has been playing for TSG Hoffenheim since the summer of 2017, and has gone through all the youth teams up to the U23s. Joshua Quarshie put on the TSG kit for the first time this summer, having signed from Rot Weiß Essen. The two up-and-coming talents – like their TSG teammate Muhammed Damar – are regular starters in the German U19s national team coached by Guido Streichsbier, and Tohumcu even has the honour of wearing the captain's armband for his country.