Despite the summer break and holidays, Werder players Per Mertesacker, Marko Marin and Clemens Fritz will show their commitment on the football pitch. And that on Whit Monday 13 June 2011 at 4 p.m., when the teams "Best of Mertesacker & Pocher" and "Friends of Robert Enke" square off. In the benefit match at Rudolf Kalweit Stadium in Hannover, ‘Merte', who will only participate passively due to an injury, Marin, Fritz and Pocher will play as well as former Hannover players Michael Tarnat, Hanno Balisch, Arnold Brugging, Richard Golz and Marco Villa, a close friend to the deceased goalkeeper from Hannover. Former Werder player Ivan Klasnic, comedian Matze Knop, Elton and Pierre van Hooijdonk will also play the match for a good cause.
The proceeds from the benefit match will be donated to both the Per Mertesacker and Robert Enke foundations. The foundation from the Werder centre back, which was started in November 2006, helps individuals in need and the development of sports in the Hannover region. In the last benefit match of the Per Mertesacker Foundation two years ago against a team from the Philipp Lahm Foundation, 10,000 spectators showed up at the home grounds of Arminia Hannover and proceeds amounted to 95,000 euro. The Werder player hopes once again that numerous visitors come to the stadium. Entrance starts at 2 p.m.