Thilo Kehrer's first day in Rouge-et-Bleu
New Paris Saint-Germain defender Thilo Kehrer got his first look at the Ooredoo Centre and enjoyed his first training session with his new teammates on Thursday.
At 12:00CEST, it was official: Thilo Kehrer had joined Paris Saint-Germain for five seasons. After arriving in the French capital two days earlier from Schalke, the Germany Under-21 international passed a medical and inked a contract through to 2023. "I'm very happy to be here, and I'm looking forward to meeting my new teammates, to get out on the pitch and train with them," the 21-year-old defender told us. His French is already perfect, which will help him settle in quickly: "Both my parents speak French. I grew up in Africa, first in Burundi then Rwanda, both francophone countries."
In the afternoon, Kehrer got his wish: he arrived at the Ooredoo Centre to meet coach Thomas Tuchel and his new teammates. Among them, Julian Draxler, a longtime friend from their time spent together at Schalke. "I spoke to Julian and to Benjamin [Stambouli, ex-Parisian who plays for Schalke]. They were both very happy to hear I was signing for Paris Saint-Germain. They told me about the club and life here."
Out on the pitch, the versatile defender took part in his first training session. Already in great shape as he has gone through pre-season training in Germany, Kehrer took part in all the different exercises set out by the technical staff: a warm-up with the ball, rondos and football-tennis. It was a fun session ahead of the more serious things to come on Friday, which will mark a step up in preparations for Saturday's league game against Guingamp.