Marco Rojas - The retirement of the Kiwi Messi

This doesn't seem good for Marco. 

Rojas has to get back on his feet and back to full fitness first - until then, everything is moot.

Heard Ricki say mid September I think.

By that logic, it doesn't look good for any player signed by old coaches.

More bad news for Stuttgart, their long term player/captain Serdar Tasci has left for Moscow only a few days after the sacking of their manager. Stuttgart currently remain with no points in the league and missed out on a europa league spot too.  

I would judging my what Ive seen of the team to date..he would play better than some there.

Good to see he has made it to their website team list now

Stuttgart picked up a 6-2 win under their new coach, hope Marco is back soon to push his claim for a spot in the team!

I wanna slam dunk number 13

VfB just tweeted a pic of Marco training individually with Club physiotherapist.  Gotta be encouraging.

And now they have just tweeted a photo of him training with a ball!  Hopefully this link works pic.twitter.com/HuNY6IB4I8

Nice to see.

http://www.vfb.de/en/aktuell/meldungen/news/2013/training-in-der-laenderspielpause-1314/page/2576-1-1-.html?f2

Marco Rojas in training

A further young VfB player is currently working on making his return to team training. Marco Rojas, who is still in rehabilitative training having broken his foot, had his first session back with the ball on Friday: „I am delighted to finally be back training with the ball again,“ said the 21 year old. “The individual training with the physio Gerhard Wörn is strenuous but it’s also a lot of fun“.

Should be a good sign that they talk about his recovery. Build up some tension for his first game.

Latest comment from the Stuttgart website suggests a return in October for Marco.

"And then there's the trio of long-term injuries from low-Georg Meier, Marco Rojas and Daniel Didavi. With the exception of the latter, all these players could be available in October again."

http://www.bundesliga.de/de/liga/news/2012/0000269515.php

Watch out for this one Marcus

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11126527

VFB Stuttgart won 4 : 0 against Braunschweig. Climped up to 6th place in the ladder.

No news on him, but he should be back training with the team.

Marco has been back training with the first team a couple of weeks now. Prior to mid-September was doing individual work.

Can keep up to date with his progress on his Facebook page - he's posting photos and comments every now and then:

https://www.facebook.com/TheOfficialMarcoRojasPage

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/03/marco-rojas-a-league-stuttgart-bundesliga Article about him in the UK's Guardian.

Played the 1st half in a friendly at Hoffenheim last Thursday,  so can't be far away. 

Stuttgart v Hoffenheim friendly:

http://www.vfb.de/en/aktuell/meldungen/news/2013/berichte-testspiele-hoffenheim-vfb-und-vfb-ii-homburg/page/2642-1-1-.html?f2

FRIENDLY DEFEAT    10.10.2013

Marco is the big interview this week on the official Stuttgart website - along with a kea at Stuttgart Zoo:

http://www.vfb.de/en/aktuell/meldungen/news/2013/marco-rojas-wilhelma-dunkelrot/page/2661-1-1-.html?f2

(slideshow at bottom of article - click on photo where it says "Slideshow" for all eleven photos)

Paying a visit to ‚Wilhelma‘: Marco Rojas

• • _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  
  

A farely new Spanish language You Tube channel devoted to "the world's most promising young footballers" has a Marco video up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6wutkNhY1I

Brilliant. Marco & Wilhelma: Kiwi mates!

This a.m. spoke to a young guy on K Rd wearing a 'ROJAS 14 STUTTGART' shirt (white on red).

"Hey mate, where did you get that?"

"Hello. I am from Germany. He is our best player."

Sweet.

He is fit now and will feature in next month's NZ play-offs game?

Not looking great for Marco against Mexico. He has had only a half game(from what I can tell) since coming back from injury and if he's not training now then he must have some other injury problem. Really hard to see him being in any sort of match condition to play such huge games in two weeks time. Without Marco and Killen we have lost two of our players most likely to create/score...I guess we will just rely on Christie instead!!!!

Add Smeltz to that too - who I think is easily the biggest loss. A fit Smeltz can score against anyone. I can't say that about anyone else. 

And Serbia :)

Wood should be a better striker but he hasn't proved it in a AW shirt yet. Good time to do it, mind you!

Hi BP. Didn't you say on the World Cup play-off thread that according to FIFA rules the squad must be announced 15 days before the first match? So we're there now. So where's the NZF announcement?

No, there's no rule about squads being announced 15 days before a FIFA window - the rule is that clubs and players must be notified at least 15 days before.

I guess an association is free to make or not make public announcements whenever they want...

So, today is the last day NZF can notify clubs and players they have been called-up.

A public announcement could be any time.

I think I read the Mexico coach said he will announce his squad for the NZ games "Thursday or Friday" this week (i.e. Friday or Saturday" NZT) after the Finland friendly tomorrow.

"So today is the last day NZF can notify clubs and players they've been called up."

"A public announcement could be any time."

Cheers BP. Any time.

Such a mickey mouse organisation at the moment.

and an assist against Slovakia