Omar 'Waterman' Jasseh on trial at Werder Bremen

German Bundesliga club SV Werder Bremen have taken Gambian midfielder Omar ‘Waterman’ Jasseh on trial, Gambia Sports Online can exclusively reveal.

Omar ‘Waterman’ Jasseh

The 20-year-old has been without a club since he was waived by the San Jose Earthquakes on July 19, 2011 during the summer transfer period in the Major League Soccer.

Werder Bremen is currently 11th in the Bundesliga, 29 points behind the leaders Bayern Munich, whom they face next at the Allianz-Arena.

A number of European clubs are understood to be trailing Omar Jasseh, but Gambia Sports Online understands that coach Thomas Schaaf has been impressed by him and has offered him another week to stay with The River Islanders.

Speaking to the club’s official website, Waterman Jasseh said he was delighted to be offered the chance to train with the team.

“I am very happy that I am now here in Bremen and can train with the boys. Werder is a great club I have been following for a long time. We’ll see how it goes [the prospect of being offered a contract],” he said.

The 5ft 7in midfielder began his playing career for Maccassa and then to Samger, before spending three years in England with youth academies at Charlton Athletic, Chelsea and Crystal Palace.

He went to the United States in 2009 and trained with Toronto FC, before signing with Major League Soccer side San Jose Earthquakes on April 14, 2010, making him the youngest player to sign with the team in franchise history.

Werder Bremen is a team founded on 4 February 1899 as Fußballverein Werder by a group of 16 vocational high school students who had won a prize of sports equipment to set them on their way.

They took their name from the seldom used regional German word for “river peninsula,” describing the riverside field on which they played their first football games. They have been a mainstay in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system.

Bremen have been crowned champions on four occasions and have won the DFB-Pokal on six occasions. Their most recent achievements in these competitions came in 2004, when they won a historic double.

They have also tasted European success as they won the 1992 European Cup Winners’ Cup Final. Bremen also reached the final of the last edition of the UEFA Cup in 2009, before it was rebranded as the UEFA Europa League, where they met Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk. Shakhtar won the final 2–1 in extra time.

During the early 2000s, Bremen was easily one of the best teams in the Bundesliga, but the two-year lack of European competition that followed soon after has diminished the team’s standing somewhat, and they have struggled to find a consistent league form in recent years.

Despite the recent success of Hannover 96, however, Werder Bremen is still, historically, the most successful club in Northern Germany. Werder Bremen has a rivalry with Hamburger SV and plays their home games at the 42,500 capacity Weserstadion.

Source: Gambia Sports online