VfL Bochum captain Patrick Fabian has signed a two-year extension to his current deal with the Westphalian club, which was set to run out at the end of this season. He will now remain in Bochum until at least 2018.
Fabian has been at the club for 15 years
The 28-year-old joined the club back in 2000, when he was just 13. Since then, he has gone on to make just shy of 200 appearances for both the reserves and first-team. This season, he has missed just one game - through suspension - and helped Bochum to sixth place in the league. They had been in free-fall until last weekend, but now seem to have steadied the ship.
Fabian will be relishing this chance at regular football, after a 28 month period on the sidelines earlier in his career. After making a winning debut against Schalke 04 back in 2009, a series of knee ligament problems in February 2011 meant that he would not play football again until the beginning of the 2013/14 season.
Bochum coming out of a tough patch
In what was a really difficult spell for the club, they finally broke that rotten run with a 4-0 win over SC Paderborn 07 at the weekend and are looking to make it into the DFB-Pokal quarter-finals; they face 1860 Munich on Wednesday for a place in the last eight.
Speaking on the extension, Fabian said: "In today's football, identification is spoken about a lot. If you're like me, and have spent 18 years at a club, you know that is something special. There is nothing like that nowadays." Head coach, Gertjan Verbeek, added, "Patrick Fabian embodies VfL with his long-time association with the club, he is captain of the team for a reason."