Bell: “I want to keep hold of my place in the team”

Mainz 05 last played in Europe during the 2016/17 season. A lot has changed since then, but one player still remains a regular in an FSV shirt. Aside from a few loan spells, Stefan Bell has been under contract at the club for a total of 18 years, and has been a fixed part of the first-team squad since the start of the 2013/14 season. Ahead of the 2025/26 campaign, the experienced defender is happy with the squad and particularly the personnel in the backline. “I think our squad’s looking good. Our new signings have impressed in pre-season and Andreas Hanche-Olsen is back in training after his surgery. With players like Dominik Kohr and Danny da Costa, we also have two players in our own ranks who bring physicality and are at a peak level of fitness,” said Bell, who praised the performances of new signing Konstantin Schopp and youngster Kacper Potulski while speaking to the media on Tuesday. Potulski took part in pre-season as a promising talent from the U23s.

A certain amount of squad depth will be especially important for Mainz at the start of the 2025/26 season. With the DFB-Pokal tie in Dresden, home and away legs in the UEFA Conference League, the Bundesliga opener against 1. FC Köln and a trip to VfL Wolfsburg on matchday two, FSV will play five matches in the space of just two weeks, posing a major early-season test. “I don’t think I’ll be able to play the full 90 minutes in all five games,” said Bell, looking ahead to the busy period. “That being said, it’s hard to predict because every game is different. I’m confident I can play a few of them, but we’ll have to rotate a bit overall – and we’ve got a squad that’s well equipped for that. I don’t expect us to have any problems in that regard.”

Two games played at a high intensity

Mainz’s pre-season preparations are now in their final stages, with the dress rehearsal against Racing Strasbourg marking the team’s last two friendlies before the start of the campaign – matches Bell missed due to illness. Even so, the centre-back offered a positive assessment in mid-August, including of the games against the French side: “I felt both matches were played at a high intensity. In the second game, you could see the team was a bit more in sync compared to the first, which is perfectly understandable given the different line-ups.” Overall, the 33-year-old is satisfied with Mainz’s pre-season: “The past few weeks have gone well for us. We’ve trained a lot and I was able to be involved the whole time, so I feel fit,” Bell explained. “The rest comes with playing matches – that’s another level in terms of physical demands.”

New signing and homegrown talent in attack

Mainz’s squad hasn’t had to cope with major departures over the summer – the main exception being Jonny Burkardt’s move to Eintracht Frankfurt. That gap in attack is set to be filled in part by Benedict Hollerbach, who has already earned praise from Bell: “I’ve faced him as an opponent and he’s not easy to play against. He’s powerful, covers a lot of ground and is always looking for the ball – that shows great mentality.” FSV also have a homegrown option up front in Nelson Weiper. The 20-year-old increasingly proved himself last season, delivering in competitive matches. “Nelly made good progress last year. He got plenty of minutes, and I think the game against Stuttgart was especially important for him – starting, scoring and helping us win. That will definitely have done him good,” Bell noted.

When it comes to team objectives, the centre-back doesn’t have to think twice – several decisive fixtures are already looming large. “It’ll be exciting for us right from the start of the season. We need wins in the DFB-Pokal and in the Conference League to stay in both competitions,” Bell stressed, before outlining his personal aims. “I want to keep hold of the place in the team that I earned last season and get as much playing time as possible. There’s competition for places in the squad, but that’s exactly what makes us better right now – everyone feels the pressure and knows they can’t take their foot off the gas.”

“I have a lot of good memories from that season”

Bell is the only player in the current Mainz squad who was part of the club’s Europa League campaign nine years ago. He still looks back fondly on that experience: “It was a great journey we had in the group stage back then. We played against Saint-Étienne, Anderlecht and Qäbälä from Azerbaijan, and unfortunately went out with nine points from six games due to an inferior goal difference,” he recalled. “It was still a cool adventure with a lot of good memories.” Now, the 05ers have the chance to create new ones – and continue their journey through Europe.