The new season of the Oberliga Niederrhein begins on Friday evening. We have looked at who the top five favourites for promotion to the Regionalliga are.
The big name: When it comes to promotion, there is of course no getting around KFC Uerdingen. And not only because the Krefeld team played in the 3rd Division just 14 months ago. KFC has by far the highest budget in the league and has put together a team full of former Regionalliga players. Be it keeper Robin Udegbe (SV Straelen), Maik Odenthal (RWO), Kevin Weggen (Wegberg-Beeck) or Kai Bastian Evers (SV Lippstadt). In addition, there are ex-Bundesliga players Levan Kenia and goal scorer Shun Terada, who were already top performers for KFC last season.
The standard favourite: Of course, SSVg Velbert is also among the top clubs. The Schlüsselstädter have made no secret of wanting to return to the Regionalliga for years. Since relegation in 2016, club boss Oliver Kuhn’s club has almost always been in the top five (the only exception was eighth place in the 17/18 season). Velbert also have a prominent squad that includes former RWE players Marcel Lenz, Robin Urban, Yannick Geisler, Ismail Remmo and Jonas Erwig-Drüppel. New coach Dimitrios Pappas also comes to the key cities with high praise from his time at RWO.
The secret favourite: Ratingen 04/19 has become a top team under coach Martin Hasenpflug. Last season’s fifth-placed team has largely kept its squad together and selectively strengthened it with top transfers. This means above all the ex-Homberg trio Mike Koenders for the defence, Pierre Nowitzki for the midfield and Samet Yesil for the attack, who scored 20 goals in 22 appearances for St. Tönis last season.
The hunter: Actually always mentioned, Sportfreunde Baumberg might even make the big leap this year. After a completely fluffed start due to the Corona quarantine and personnel problems, coach Salah El Halimi’s team eventually worked its way up to fourth place. The first win did not come until the beginning of October, and the points average from then on would have been enough for second place. Here, too, the big asset was the functioning team, which had been strengthened in a targeted manner.
The upstart: VfB Hilden has had a historic season. Second place at the end and the promotion of the U19s to the Bundesliga are an incredible success for the team from Itterstadt. Team and coach have stayed together here as well. The big question remains: Can the club repeat these great successes once again? If so, Hilden will be in with a chance again.