Last weekend, the men’s 2. Bundesliga also kicked off the second half of the season. SC Paderborn is pursuing an exciting squad policy here, currently fourth in the table, one point behind third-placed Darmstadt 98.
More than half of the SCP squad did not have 2. Bundesliga experience upon their arrival in East Westphalia. The players came from the 3. Liga or from the Regionalliga. Mika Baur arrived from Freiburg II, thus from the Regionalliga. Also from the fourth tier were the regular goalkeeper Denis Seimen, Laurin Curda and Tjak Scheller. Baur, Seimen, Curda and Scheller are currently regulars for the second-placed team. The defensive midfielder Mika Baur is categorized by Kicker in his first-half-season ranking of the 2. Bundesliga in the “Outstanding” category. Likewise Laurin Curda in the “Offensive midfield” category.
When Preußen Münster were relegated to the Regionalliga in the 2019/20 season, the current second-division club initially lacked half of its squad. Available were, among others, the players Joel Grodowski, Marcel Hoffmeier, Lukas Frenkert and Nicolai Remberg. In the relegation season they had been used almost exclusively in the club’s Oberliga team. The fact that Preußen initially struggled with squad issues turned out to be a stroke of luck for the players.
But not a few in the club’s environment argued that with these boys a return to the 3. Liga would not be possible. Later the club’s own youth product Jano ter Horst joined, who had spent his first senior year exclusively in the Oberliga team.
The Rapid Rise of Ebnoutalib
Today four of the five mentioned players are playing in the 2. Bundesliga. For Nicolai Remberg, it went one tier higher: he now plays for Hamburger SV.
One of the most spectacular winter transfers is Younes Ebnoutalib’s move to Eintracht Frankfurt. Two transfer windows earlier, the striker moved after 19 games and six goals for the Regionalliga club VfB Gießen to the 2. Bundesliga side SV Elversberg, where he did not feature in the Rückrunde. In the Hinrunde 2025/26, Ebnoutalib then appeared in all league matches and scored twelve goals. Now the move to Eintracht for a transfer fee of eight million euros. Two years earlier, Elversberg had to pay only 50,000 euros to Gießen.
There is a general problem that players are often written off too early. Too little attention is paid to how the setting must be arranged for them to develop optimally. If the playing system aligns with their individual abilities, they play in the position where they shine the most and can best mask their weaknesses.
Another problem is this: a player who up to then could only prove himself in the Oberliga or Regionalliga is not believed capable of the 2. Bundesliga or even higher. Whether a player is suited for this level is only known when you let him play there—and not just for a few minutes.
Coaches’ Conservative Thinking
Coaches tend to rely on experience. If the alternative is to sign a 28-year-old experienced Bundesliga player or a standout young Regionalliga player, many will opt for experience. For a player whom the coach expects to deliver immediately.
What one cannot blame the coaches for. For they are usually judged purely on the results. In clubs that emphasize sustainable action and the development (i.e., making players better), it is often no different. If the coach loses three times in a row, the guardrails of the philosophy are dismantled.
There is also the personal career planning. “Has worked well with young players, has improved players from lower leagues” sounds good. But it does not help in climbing to the next levels if the résumé also contains a relegation.
The coach’s career planning and the club’s strategic orientation are not always aligned. And when they are, it is often only for a limited time; SC Freiburg is rather an exception here. At Werder Bremen, Ole Werner did not want to languish in the middle of the table. Which is completely legitimate, but Werder could not provide him the necessary prerequisites for a European place. The club apparently wanted to rely more on good scouting and talents from within the ranks—to reduce costs and create value. Ole Werner was charged with placing too little emphasis on young players and too much on experienced ones. It remains to be seen to what extent this was actually the case.
Werder perhaps remains somewhat under the Woltemade shock. A few years ago I heard in Bremen: “If Nick Woltemade doesn’t break through with us, then we have done something wrong.” In the 2020/21 season, Woltemade accumulated 143 minutes in the Bundesliga for Werder; a season later, 44 minutes one level lower.
Woltemade was loaned to the then-third-division SV Elversberg, where he flourished: 2,211 minutes of playing time, ten goals. In 2023/24 he returned to the Weser, now playing 1,184 Bundesliga minutes, but he did not become a regular. In the summer of 2024 he moved to VfB Stuttgart, where he, under Sebastian Hoeneß, broke through because the setting finally clicked. Nick Woltemade could also have ended up as a third-division player.
