Weiper: “Bo has managed to get even more out of me”

Nelson Weiper has gained plenty of confidence over the summer. The Mainz academy product earned himself a place in his country’s starting eleven during the U21 EUROs, and his four goals played a big part in Germany making it all the way to the final, with Paul Nebel and former 05er Brajan Gruda also among their ranks. Weiper has had time to mull over the unfortunate extra-time defeat to England. “That was really disappointing,” he said while speaking to the media at our training camp. However, what stays with him the most are the experiences that the homegrown star gained at international level, and he now wants to take these with him into pre-season and achieve the next step in his development. His aims for his next season with Mainz 05 are clear: more game time, more goals, and, in the long term, earning himself a regular place in Bo Henriksen’s starting line-up.

Weiper has already shown that he has the patience that a young player needs in order to achieve that. After he made a fast start, with his first appearances and goals coming during the 2022/23 season as a 17-year-old, the striker suffered a knee injury at the start of the following campaign. Last season, the 20-year-old returned to the spotlight, particularly in the second half of the campaign, during which he played more minutes and scored three goals. Weiper showed that he’s on the right track, particularly in the home win over VfB Stuttgart, when he replaced Jonny Burkardt in the starting eleven and then netted the opening goal. “It was extremely important that I scored a goal then,” he recalled.

“I always watched the strikers at Mainz”

Henriksen had seen Weiper’s potential from the very start. He still found some flaws in terms of the 20-year-old’s willingness to put in the hard yards and his work rate off the ball. Intensity is the most important thing to the Dane. “He said that I just need to put in more work off the ball. I thought I could already give my all to start with, but he’s managed to get even more out of me,” said Weiper.

He has learnt the qualities needed for a Mainz forward from his predecessors in a FSV shirt. Former teammate Jonny Burkardt was not his only role model; he also looked up to players who were with the 05ers long before Weiper, such as Shinji Okazaki and Jean-Philippe Mateta. He had been able to see them up close as a ball boy. Mateta currently spearheads the attack for Premier League side Crystal Palace, and the 05ers will take on the Eagles in their final friendly of the training camp on Tuesday (14:00 CEST, at the Hans-Ludwig-Stadion near Salzburg). “I always watched the strikers at Mainz. They were all good. You could definitely learn things from watching Mateta. He’s very powerful and uses his body well.”

“It’s always getting better”

The players named above all reached double figures in a Bundesliga season for FSV. That is also a long-term goal for Weiper. The 20-year-old is realistic about the situation, though, and knows that he hasn’t yet reached the final stage of his development. “It’s always getting better,” he emphasised.