Pleased with the chat, and with both sides being close on finances, the Quakes proceeded and pulled a surprise by finalizing a deal to sign Werner from RB Leipzig, which was announced on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cTimo understands the project here, I talked to him about how he fits in the team and our expectations of him,\u201d Arena told The Athletic. \u201cHe\u2019s all in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Werner joins the Quakes still in his prime years at 29 \u2013\u00a0but in need of a fresh start.<\/p>\n
The forward scored 24 goals in 57 appearances with the German national team, all between 2017-23. He bounced between England and Leipzig in recent years, with a move to Chelsea and back to Leipzig, then a loan to Tottenham and back again.<\/p>\n
That move to Chelsea in particular slowed down Werner\u2019s career trajectory, though it provided a big financial increase and a Champions League winners medal (2020-21). That was the last season Werner played more than 2,000 minutes in a single league campaign.<\/p>\n
Sources briefed on the player say the sentiment at Leipzig was that the transfer wasn\u2019t right for Werner, that he wasn\u2019t a good fit at Chelsea on or off the field. He returned to Leipzig in 2022 but again went to England in January 2024 with Tottenham. That move went worse than Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Even at the best periods of his career<\/a>, Werner has not been the most consistent player in training, sources say. Ange Postecoglou\u2019s harsh handling of Werner didn\u2019t help either, in public or private. The final part of his 18-month loan at Tottenham was the worst period of his career, sources say.<\/p>\n When the loan expired and Werner returned to Leipzig this summer, the team made it clear in no uncertain terms he was not in its plans. Serious talks with Leipzig\u2019s MLS sister club, the New York Red Bulls, did not result in a summer transfer. But even as both sides balked over contract expectations with the view Werner was content to not play and collect his pay, he remained a very popular figure with the Leipzig fanbase.<\/p>\n This all opened the door for San Jose to make a push this winter \u2013 and present a necessary clean slate and new objectives.<\/p>\n \n Bruce Arena is entering his second season as San Jose Earthquakes manager (Robert Edwards \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a quality player, has a lot of experience and is highly motivated,\u201d Arena said. \u201cI think he\u2019s going to have a positive impact for our team and how we\u2019re viewed in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Werner will unexpectedly become the centerpiece in a new-look Quakes attack following the surprise exit of DP forward Chicho Arango to Atl\u00e9tico Nacional<\/a> and free-agent departure of playmaker Cristian Espinoza to Nashville. Werner can play off the left as an inside forward, a role he perfected over years in Leipzig, or even more centrally. The permutations will come together in preseason and as San Jose continues its winter business, with Arena hoping for \u201canother signing or two.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always a big decision to go to America, but everything is there to be successful,\u201d Werner said in a statement. \u201cThe stadium and the facilities are beautiful. Also, it really impressed me that an experienced manager like Bruce, who has had so much success in the league, flew over here to Germany to talk to me about the plan. The Earthquakes fans can expect to get a player who gives everything on the pitch, every game. Every club I\u2019ve joined, I\u2019ve wanted to win a trophy. In the end, I\u2019ve always delivered. That\u2019s why I want to come to San Jose \u2014 to win.\u201d<\/p>\n He can\u2019t do it alone, though, and after Arango\u2019s departure, San Jose has two DP spots open, an area that could be addressed this winter.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a possibility, we\u2019re looking at players,\u201d Arena said, prior to Arango\u2019s sale.<\/p>\n Though Werner has sparsely featured for RB Leipzig this season \u2014 13 minutes of first-team action, to be exact \u2014 Arena isn\u2019t worried about how long it will take for him to physically be match-ready.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, he\u2019s been training throughout the season,\u201d Arena said. \u201cWe\u2019re not starting at step one in terms of his match fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n San Jose opens the season on February 21 at home against Sporting KC. It\u2019s the start of year two under Arena, which has historically included a big jump in success in the legendary coach\u2019s previous stops. In his second full season at both the LA Galaxy (2010) and New England Revolution (2021), he won the Supporters\u2019 Shield.<\/p>\n Beyond Werner and any potential further additions this winter, the squad is in a much different place than last year, with the team\u2019s leading scorer (Josef Mart\u00ednez, 14 goals), assist man (Espinoza, 12) and top goal contributor (Arango, 20; 13 goals, seven assists) off with new clubs. Arena pointed to defensive midfielder Ronaldo Vieira, signed over the summer, as someone who will be key to the team\u2019s chances this season, as well as continued growth from young players Beau Leroux, Niko Tsakiris and Noel Buck.<\/p>\n Arena understandably pushed back at setting Shield expectations for his second year with the Quakes, but he is confident in the group and club as a whole being in a better place than when he took over.<\/p>\n \u201cThis signing says we\u2019re more ambitious (than we previously were),\u201d Arena said about Werner. \u201cMy general feeling in year one at this club, as I observed the everyday environment, we were not positioned to win. We didn\u2019t have that mentality. We\u2019re starting to get out of that, and the signing of Timo makes that statement.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a long struggle for more than a dozen years in San Jose.<\/p>\n The Quakes opened their stadium, PayPal Park, in 2015. That stadium has still not hosted a home playoff game, with the club only making the postseason three times since 2012.<\/p>\n Arena compared the situation to American college football, looking at the Indiana Hoosiers and head coach Curt Cignetti<\/a>. In his first year, in 2024, Cignetti guided Indiana to the College Football Playoff for the first time. In his second season, Indiana went 16-0 and won the school\u2019s first football national championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been listening to the Indiana football coach and I thought there were things very similar,\u201d Arena said. \u201cHe turned things around. I haven\u2019t been as successful as him at it (here), but there has to be an awareness and a commitment from ownership and everyone in the club. We\u2019re slowly getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n For the Quakes to have any shot of getting where they want to go, they\u2019ll need goals from Werner. And they believe that is certainly coming.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe he\u2019s a marquee player,\u201d Arena said. \u201cThat\u2019ll create enthusiasm within the club, hopefully within the community and within the stands. Hopefully we\u2019re more successful.\u201d<\/p>\n Sebastian Stafford-Bloor contributed reporting to this story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The holiday season in Germany comes with beautiful sights and markets across the country, making it a popular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[67139,76543,22844,11203,53490,88,1084,90,89,1083,76544],"class_list":["post-156424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bundesliga","tag-chelsea","tag-germany","tag-mls","tag-rb-leipzig","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-earthquakes","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-soccer","tag-tottenham-hotspur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/USATSI_27136008-scaled.jpg\")
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