TSV Meerbusch have pulled off a major coup. It’s not every day that an Oberliga club makes a transfer like this.

We break down TSV Meerbusch’s transfer king right at the start: Kolja Pusch is moving from MSV Duisburg to the Oberliga Niederrhein club.

“A real king transfer!”, says TSV sporting director Christoph Peters happily. It’s clear that Pusch has an impressive CV. The 31-year-old played a whopping 185 third division matches, in which he scored 24 goals and assisted 28 goals. He also made 26 appearances in the 2nd Bundesliga and 48 matches in the regional league.

The midfielder spent the last three years under contract with MSV Duisburg and also played a season with KFC Uerdingen before that. And yet: Meerbusch chairman Peters only knew the Wuppertal-born Pusch by name.

He reveals a curious story to Forecasting. “I met Kolja a few weeks ago. It was actually a business meeting. His father and he run a construction company and wanted to do business with our company, which is active in air conditioning and refrigeration technology. At the end of the conversation, Kolja asked me whether there was also the possibility of playing soccer at TSV Meerbusch. He caught me completely on the wrong foot. I hadn’t realized until then that the MSV Duisburg professional Kolja Pusch was sitting opposite me,” says Peters.

The story gets even crazier. Peters reveals: “When he said that he had spent the last few years at MSV. I thought: ‘Ah, he played for MSV Düsseldorf and got relegated’. (laughs). It wasn’t until I heard the word Duisburg and professionals that the penny dropped for me too. But he’s such a cool guy. He didn’t hold my ignorance against me at all. I’m incredibly pleased that we’ve been able to attract such a strong character and great footballer to TSV Meerbusch.”

In addition to Pusch, TSV plans to announce further additions in the coming days. To date, only Pusch from Duisburg, Noah Korczowski (TVD Velbert) and Bojan Potnar (VfB Hilden U19) have been officially unveiled