Last weekend the men’s 2nd Bundesliga also started the second half of the season. There is an exciting cadre policy here SC Paderborncurrently fourth in the table, one point behind third-place Darmstadt 98.
Over half of the SCP squad had no second division experience when they arrived in East Westphalia. The players came from the 3rd league or the regional league. Mika Baur came from Freiburg II, i.e. from the regional league. Regular keepers Denis Seimen, Laurin Curda and Tjak Scheller were also signed from the fourth division. Baur, Seimen, Curda and Scheller are currently regulars for the second division team. The defensive midfielder Mika Baur is from Kicker placed in the “Outstanding” category in its first round ranking of the 2nd Bundesliga. Likewise Laurin Curda in the “attacking midfield” category.
When Preußen Münster was relegated to the regional league in the 2019/20 season, the current second division team was initially missing half a squad. The players Joel Grodowski, Marcel Hoffmeier, Lukas Frenkert and Nicolai Remberg were among those available. In the relegation season they were used almost exclusively in the club’s top league team. The fact that the Prussians were initially plagued by squad problems was a stroke of luck for the players.
But quite a few people around the club were of the opinion that a return to the 3rd league would not be possible with these boys. Jano ter Horst, who had spent his first senior year exclusively in the top league team, was later added.
The rapid rise of Ebnoutalib
Today four of the five players mentioned play in the second Bundesliga. For Nicolai Remberg it went one level higher: he plays for Hamburger SV.
One of the most spectacular winter transfers is that of Younes Ebnoutalib to Eintracht Frankfurt. Two winter breaks before, after 19 games and six goals for the regional league team VfB Gießen, the striker moved to the second division team SV Elversberg, where he did not play a role in the second half of the season. In the first half of the 2025/26 season, Ebnoutalib played in all championship games and scored twelve goals. Now the move to Eintracht for a transfer fee of eight million euros. Two years earlier, Elversberg only had to transfer 50,000 euros to Giessen.
It is a general problem that players are often written off too early. That too little attention is paid to what the setting must be like in which they can develop optimally. Does the game system correspond to their individual abilities, do they play in the position where they shine most and can best hide their weaknesses?
But there is another problem: a player who has only been able to perform in the Oberliga or Regionalliga up to that point is not trusted to be able to play in the 2nd Bundesliga or even higher. But you only know whether a player is suitable for this league when you let him play there – and not just for a few minutes.
Coaches’ safety mindset
Trainers often tend to focus on experience. If the alternative is to sign a 28-year-old experienced Bundesliga player or an eye-catching young regional league player, then many will choose experience. For a player who the coach expects to deliver straight away.
Which you can’t blame the coaches for. Because they are usually measured by the pure result. This is often no different in clubs that emphasize sustainable action and training (i.e. improving) players. If the coach loses three times in a row, the guard rails of the philosophy are dismantled.
There is also personal career planning. “Worked great with young players, made players from lower leagues better,” that sounds good. But it doesn’t help you climb the next level if your biography also includes a descent.
The coach’s career planning and the club’s strategic direction are not always aligned. And if they do, then often only for a limited time, SC Freiburg is rather an exception here. As coach at Werder Bremen, Ole Werner didn’t want to languish in the midfield of the table. Which is completely legitimate, but Werder couldn’t provide him with the necessary conditions for a place in Europe. Among other things, the club probably wanted to rely more on good scouting and talent from within its own ranks – in order to reduce costs and create value. Ole Werner was accused of relying too little on young players and too much on experienced players. It remains to be seen to what extent this was actually the case.
Werder is perhaps still a bit under the Woltemade shock. A few years ago I heard in Bremen: “If Nick Woltemade doesn’t make a breakthrough with us, then we’ve done something wrong.” In the 2020/21 season, Woltemade played 143 minutes in the Bundesliga at Werder, and one season later he played 44 minutes one floor lower.
Woltemade was loaned to the then third division club SV Elversberg, where he flourished: 2,211 minutes of play, ten goals. In 2023/24 he was back on the Weser and played 1,184 minutes in the Bundesliga, but he did not become a regular. In the summer of 2024, “Stolpermade”, as some called him, moved to VfB Stuttgart, where he made his breakthrough under Sebastian Hoeneßbecause the setting was now right. Nick Woltemade could have ended up as a third division player.