akzent

The new season will begin after the worlds (because many wrestlers in the German clubs will wrestle in Baku). In the First League, there are 3 areal divisions (North, Central South), each with 8 clubs = total 24 clubs. In October-December (each Saturday or Sunday), the clubs in each division will meet each other twice (visitors & host). Then there will be play offs, semis and the final. End of the season - March.
A dual meet has 10 matches - 5 FS and 5 GR. Under the rules of the German League, each match has not up to 3, but up to 5 periods. The winner of a match has to win 3 of 5 periods.

I copied the rosters of 3 clubs. It is interesting to see who will wrestle there! I marked the names of world & euro medallists.

1. Luckenwalder SC
55F: Emanuel Krause (17), Rene Pikulla (25), Radoslav Velikov (23), Amiran Kartanov (30), 55G: Dariusz Jablonski (34), Venelin Venkov (25), 60G: Dennis Nowka (29), Eusebio Diaconu (26), Jani Haapamäki (25), 60F: Anatoli Guidea (30), Stephan Spengler (24), 66F: Felix Menzel (19), Serafim Barzakov (31), 66G: Jani Hermansson (25), Nikolai Gergov (28), Stefan Barde (22), 74F: Andreas Zabel (35), Krystian Brzozowski (25), 74G: Lars Levermann (26), Alexey Glushkov (32), 84F: Norman Pickut (32), Mihail Ganev (22), 84G: Mark O. Madsen (22), Artur Michalkiewicz (29), 96G: Andreas Aurich (25), Marek Svec (34), 96F: Shamil Gitinov (28), Nico Graf (24), Vincent Aka-Akesse (32), 120F: Kyashif Sharikoglu (30), 120G: Jalmar Sjöberg (22).
Quite a Bulgarian team!

KSV Köllerbach
55G: Daniel Skulski (18), 55/60F: Vladimir Toguzov (41), 60G: Timo Badusch (16), 60/66G. Albert Nourov (38), 60/66F: Ismail Redzhep (20), 66G: Jurij Kohl (32), 66/74F: Hristov-Dimitar Tsevetkov (21), 74G: Gleb Banas (19), 74/84F: Andrij Shuyyka (27), 74/84G: Konstantin Schneider (32), 84G: Jan Fischer (21), 84/96F: Arcadie Tzopa (26),96/120G: Vladislav Metodiev (27), 96/120F: Dimitar Kumchev (27); 120G: Marek Sitnik (32).

KSV Aalen 05
55G: Constantin Bulibasa (22), 55F:Vitalie Reilean (31), 60F: Tigran Abrahamjan (28), 60G: Patrick Sorg (19), 66G: Constantin Borascu (33), 66F: Valerios Kogouasvili (32), 66/74G: Ismail Baygus (25), 74G: Plamen Palev (21), 74F: Peter Engelhardt (24), Kiril Terziev (23), 84G: Paul Popatov (21), Marco Yli-Hannuksela (33), 84F: Emzarios Betinidis (31), Davyd Bichinashvili (32), 96G: Patric Nuding (26), 96F: Eldar Kurtanidze(34), 120G: Ralf Böhringer (23), 120F: Rares Daniel Chintoan (24).
Quite a Georgian team!

Less than 2 months ago, Kurtanidze informed the Executive bureau of the NOC of Georgia + all the media (giving also some interviews) that he had decided to retire. His contract with the German club is from late June, i.e. a month after he announced his retirement.
Kurtanidze had wrestled in the German League ca. 5 seasons in the 1990s and later (until 2003). Then he moved to the Iranian League.

BTW, last weekend Kurtanidze wrestled at the tournament in Tbilisi and placed second at 96 kg. Gogshelidze became the champ.
(Interestingly, it was the 84-kg Turkish guy Serhat Balci who placed 3rd at 96. He is quite successful this year - 3rd at the euros, second at Aliev tournamnet beating Sajidov there.)

Big

akzent, let me ask you, what are they getting paid for wrestling in these leagues and where does the money come from? I don't hear much about wrestling being popular in Germany. Thanks!

akzent

It is individuals' competitions (nationals, tournaments) which are not popular in Germany. At nationals usually there are ca. 100 spectators. Duals are VERY popular - sometimes more than 1000 spectators at a dual. 1000 and even 800 (the usual number) is quite a lot considering the fact that on Saturdays Germans watch soccer or go in the mountains skiing.

The clubs have sponsors. In the first part of the season (the matches of the 8 clubs in a regional division), a wrestler gets between 600 and 1200 Euro (1000 E = 1400 USD) for a match; no matter whether he wins or loses. Well if he wins an important match in the last phase (Nov-Dec) helping the team to place for the play offs, he will get some more money. In the semis and in the final, he gets more than 1000 Euro.
600 or 1000 I mentioned above – of course, the distribution depends on who is who. A world medalist will get ca. 1000 or more, a newcomer must be happy with 600.

Big

Thanks Akzent. Looks like very few if any wrestlers from team Russia. How come?

akzent

According to the rules of the League concerning citizenship, in a team (10 wrestlers) in a particual dual, at least 3 wrestlers should be Germans, i.e. 7 wrestlers in the team can be foreigners. BUT only one of the foreigners can be a citizen of any non-EU country. That is the reason why there are just a few wrestlers from Russia, Ukraine... Iran etc. (Turkey is regarded as an EU-country.) You see that in one of the clubs, there are 2 wrestlers of non-EU countries - Gitinov and Glushkov. That means: in a dual only one of them is allowed to wrestle. If Gitinov wrestles, Glushkov has to be a spectator and vice versa.

iranews

how much recieved Ganev and Barzakov in last season

akzent

No idea. I know them both but I am not friend with them, so I cannot talk with them about such matters. What I wrote above - I know this from other wrestlers in the German league who I am friend with. In addition, I have some personal observations from the last 4 seasons - a time I lived there and attended duals almost every weekend. If you are friend with Dorostkar, you can talk with him about the League and his experiences there. He wrestled 2 or 3 seasons there.

akzent

Big, there are several reasons why Germans like duals, but not "individuals". One of them is the quality of the performances of international wrestlers. In the League, the fans & spectators used to watch great matches of great wrestlers. They cannot watch such performances at nationals; at Grand Prix - only occasonally. Let me tell you only the fact that when in the very beginning of the 1990s the "cold war" was over (or was it?) the first Easteuropean wrestlers who joined German clubs were the best of the best - Valentin Jordanov, Makharbek Khadartsev....... They made wrestling duals attractive not only for fans, but also for people who hadn't been interested before.

iranews

this year top Iranian wrestlers will recieve about 40000 $ for a season or more. its not clear yet allowing teams to have foreign wrestlers

Big

$40,000 in Iran is a lot of money. Isn't the average salary in Iran like $1K-$2K per year? Wrestlers must live like kings there.