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A surprise transfer by TSV Bad Königshofen will add even more glamour from China to the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) from the start of the second half of the season. For the decisive months in the second half of the season, the bottom-of-the-table team has strengthened its ranks with Chinese national player Xue Fei and hopes that this will reshuffle the cards in the battle to avoid relegation.

“We want to continue to present Bundesliga table tennis in Bad Königshofen to our fans, partners, and sponsors, and therefore keep the league competitive,” said TSV sporting director Andreas Albert when asked by the TTBL media team about the signing of Xue, referring to the relegation worries of the playoff semifinalists of the past two TTBL seasons.

Xue is the most spectacular winter signing for a TTBL club since the introduction of the second transfer period within a season. On the one hand, the multiple junior world champion from the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia is the second world-class player from China to join the German elite league this season, following 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT's coup with Olympic champion Fan Zhendong. On the other hand, the 26-year-old World Cup participant, ranked 69th in the world, is already the 21st player from the top 70 in last November's rankings to sign a contract with a TTBL club. -participant is already the 21st player from the top 70 of last November's rankings to sign a contract with a TTBL club.

Xue is likely to improve the quality of Bad Königshofen's team as well as the flexibility of their lineup. At the end of the year, the penholder player underlined his potential with two victories against Japan's top 10 star Tomokazu Harimoto and a win over Germany's top player Dang Qiu. His all-time high of 38th in the world rankings last spring already demonstrated the right-hander's general capabilities.

The team led by young national player Andre Bertelsmeier could certainly use their new star. After the end of the career of former top player Jin Ueda, the role of number one could not be filled by an equivalent replacement. This shortcoming has been difficult to compensate for so far this season for Bayern, who were the only team besides Werder Bremen and TSV Bergneustadt to start the season with only four players.

The pressure on Albert and his coach Koji Itagaki to take action grew accordingly from round to round. With two games left in the first half of the season, Bad Königshofen is already four points behind the safety zone in the table, and unlike in some previous years, the promotion of at least one second division team cannot be ruled out yet.

In its search for the necessary reinforcement, TSV was able to leverage its good contacts with former Bundesliga coach Fu Yong (TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen). The Chinese coach has excellent connections in his home country and with the association of serial world champions, which enabled him to secure Xue's release until the end of the season.

It is not known in which match Xue will make his debut in the TTBL. The Grabfeld club has also not provided any information on the planned number of appearances for its new number one.

However, Albert hopes that Xue's appearances will have a positive effect on the perception of his club on Chinese social media channels, beyond the successful fight against relegation. With over 100,000 followers already registered on Bad Königshofen's Weibo channel since the account was set up around the fans' guest appearance with Saarbrücken, Albert is convinced “that Xue will enable us to further increase our reach in China.”

Florian Manzke
Featured image (above): Xue Fei (Source: WTT)