West Ham United step up their pre-season preparations for the 2025/26 season by travelling to Germany for a week-long training camp that will conclude with a fixture across the border against Swiss Super League side Grasshopper Club Zürich.
Head Coach Graham Potter takes his players to the Black Forest of southern Germany near the French/Swiss border, where the majority of the Hammers’ first team squad - with the exception of Edson Álvarez, who recently headed Mexico to CONCACAF Gold Cup glory in the United States - will be put through their paces, with early starts and fitness-building sessions expected to be the story of the intense week ahead.
Potter welcomed 27 players to Rush Green on Monday, including Crysencio Summerville and returning loanees Nayef Aguerd, Maxwel Cornet, Freddie Potts, George Earthy, Callum Marshall and Krisztián Hegyi, while Academy of Football graduates Kaelan Casey, Lewis Orford and Ollie Scarles are now fully-fledged members of the senior squad and will have an opportunity to impress the Head Coach and his staff.
Germany has been the pre-season destination of choice for many Premier League clubs in recent years. With an elevation of 700 metres above sea level across the country, compared to just 162 metres in the UK, the players’ muscles will be forced to work harder to take in oxygen, producing more red blood cells and allowing more oxygen to be distributed around the body when returning to compete at a lower altitude, and for manager Potter, he believes this trip presents an excellent opportunity to maximise the players' talent and potential on and off the pitch, and is an important time to build a solid togetherness within the group before the new season kicks off.
The players will be working extremely hard throughout the seven days in Germany, and the camp will finish with the first taste of match action against 27-times Swiss champions Grasshopper Club Zürich, who are at the conclusion of their pre-season preparations ahead of their Swiss Super League curtain-raiser against FC Luzern at the end of July, and tickets for our opening pre-season fixture against Grasshopper on Saturday 19 July at 3pm CEST (2pm BST) are now on General Sale HERE.
Following their return from Zürich, it’s a quick turnaround as Potter’s men head to the United States for the Premier League Summer Series. There, the Hammers will face Manchester United in New Jersey on Saturday 26 July, then head to 61,500-capacity Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, to face Everton on Wednesday 30 July, before completing an exciting hat-trick of matches by taking on AFC Bournemouth at 71,000-capacity Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, which is also a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, on Sunday 3 August.
Tickets are now on General Sale for all three matches HERE.
The Hammers will then complete pre-season preparations with the visit of French club LOSC Lille to London Stadium for the BOYLE Sports Cup on Saturday 9 August. For ticket details, click HERE.
