SV Werder Bremen is a German sports club best known for its association football team playing in Bremen, in the northwest German federal state of the same name. The club was founded on 4 February 1899 as Fußballverein Werder by a group of sixteen 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 they first played football on. Werder Bremen has grown to 39,100 members.

Bremen have been a mainstay in the Bundesliga, top flight of German football. 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 an historic double. Bremen have also tasted European success, beating AS Monaco in the 1992 European Cup Winners' Cup Final, 2–0. Bremen also reached the final 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.

Jürgen Norbert 'Kloppo' Klopp (born 16 June 1967) is a German former footballer and the current manager of Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.

Klopp played his entire senior career for 1. FSV Mainz 05 from 1990 to 2001. He originally played as a striker, before switching to play as a defender in 1995.

Upon his retirement from playing for Mainz 05, Klopp was appointed as the club's manager. He remained as manager for seven years, during which time he led the team to its first appearance in the Bundesliga, and qualification for the 2005–06 UEFA Cup. At the end of the 2006–07 season, Mainz 05 were relegated, but Klopp chose to remain with the club. However, due to the fact that they were not able to achieve promotion, he resigned at the end of the 2007–08 season.

In May 2008, Klopp was approached to become the new manager of Borussia Dortmund, eventually signing a two-year contract at the club, which had finished in a disappointing 13th place under previous manager Thomas Doll. In his first season in charge, Klopp guided Borussia Dortmund to win the DFB-Supercup, defeating German champions Bayern Munich. Klopp took the club to a sixth place finish in his first season in charge, and a fifth place finish in the season after that, before leading the club to successive Bundesliga titles in the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons. During the 2011-2012 season, the 81 points accrued by Borussia Dortmund was the greatest points tally ever amassed in Bundesliga history and the 47 points earned in the second half of the season also set a new record. Borussia Dortmund's 25 league wins equalled Bayern Munich's 1972/73 milestone while their 28-league match unbeaten sequence was the best ever recorded in a single German top-flight season. On 12 May 2012, Klopp made Borussia Dortmund history by sealing the club's first ever domestic double, by defeating Bayern Munich 5–2 to win the DFB-Pokal. Klopp described the double as being "better than (he) could have imagined".

Matthias Ginter (19 January 1994) is a German footballer who currently plays for SC Freiburg in the German Bundesliga, the highest level of football in Germany. He is currently the youngest player to score a goal for Freiburg in the 1. Bundesliga.

Ginter began his career with SV March, before he moved to the youth squad of SC Freiburg for the 2005–06 season. With the A-youth squad, he won the Junior DFB-Pokal.

In January 2012, Ginter trained with Freiburg's first team due, in part, to a loss of several players from the roster during the winter transfer window. On 21 January 2012 Ginter made his professional debut when he was substituted in for Anton Putsila in the 70th minute against fellow relegation battlers FC Augsburg. In the 88th minute of the game, he scored the winning goal from a free-kick by Michael Lumb for his team in the 1-0 victory. The goal, which came two days after Ginter's 18th birthday, made him SCF's youngest Bundesliga goalscorer in the club's history. The record was previously held by Dennis Aogo. Two days later, on January 23, Ginter signed a contract to join the first team of SC Freiburg.

Claudio Miguel Pizarro Bosio (born 3 October 1978 in Callao, Peru) is a Peruvian football forward. Pizarro plays for the Peru national team, for which he has 60 caps. He is known for his scoring ability and headers.

On 23 October 2010, Pizarro surpassed the 133 goals record previously reached by Giovane Elber, making him the top foreign scorer in German football history, when he scored with his team, Werder Bremen against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Pizarro was born and raised in the Santiago de Surco district of capital city Lima. He was born to Patricia Bosio and Claudio Pizarro Dávila, a naval officer. He has a sister, Patricia, and brother, Diego. Younger brother, Diego, was a youth player for Bayern Munich, and he is currently playing for Cienciano.

Pizarro is married to his teenage sweetheart, Karla Salcedo, and they have two sons, Claudio and Gianluca, and one daughter, Antonella. Pizarro co-owns a race horse called 'Crying Lightning' with Queens Park Rangers player Joey Barton. In January 2011 the horse competed at the Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai.

Thomas Schaaf (born 30 April 1961 in Mannheim) is a German retired footballer who played as a defender, and the current coach of SV Werder Bremen.

A true one-club man, he spent his entire playing career with Werder Bremen. He starting coaching the team in 1999, making him one of the longest serving coaches in the Bundesliga.

Schaaf arrived at SV Werder Bremen's youth academy in 1972, turning professional six years later. After a slow start with the first team, where he made only 21 league appearances in four years combined – 19 of them coming in 1980–81 with the team in the second division – he eventually became an important squad member; he made his debut in the Bundesliga on 18 April 1979, in a 0–3 away loss against VfL Bochum.

Schaaf went on to play in 260 top flight games in the following seasons, eventually retiring in 1994 at the age of 33. During his time with his only club, he helped the Hanseatic outfit win two national championships (he was already a fringe player by the time of the 1993 conquest, appearing in only five matches) and as many domestic cups; in the 1991–92 edition of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, he was on the bench for the final against AS Monaco FC, but replaced injured Thomas Wolter after 30 minutes in an eventual 2–0 win in Lisbon.