Raphael Steinmetz, player-coach at Schwarz-Weiß Alstaden and former goalscorer at Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, answers the Forecasting questionnaire.

Raphael Steinmetz played a total of 210 games for Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, scoring 64 goals and providing 33 assists. In the summer of 2022, however, the Oberhausen native ended the Regionalliga West chapter at the age of just 27 and returned to his youth club Schwarz-Weiß Alstaden. He acts as player-coach at the district league club and caused a stir in the Lower Rhine Cup in September with three goals in a 4:3 n.V. win against Wuppertaler SV – for whom he briefly played himself in 2017. He talks to Forecasting about the best moments of his career, explains why he didn’t make it to the top and who he would like to drink a beer off.

Raphael Steinmetz, please finish the sentence:

My greatest strength is… scoring goals!

My biggest weakness is… defensive work.

In our dressing room… it’s fun, joyful and with a lot of team spirit.

The best moment of my soccer career was… the 1:0 against Rot-Weiss Essen in February 2015, when I scored the winning goal with my head.

The best goal of my career was… a month later, in March 2015, my third goal in the 4-0 win against SC Wiedenbrück. I scored three times and announced my contract extension before the game.

I didn’t become a professional footballer because… I didn’t exactly have the fitness of Adonis.

The best thing about the Ruhr area is… everything! Lots of derbies, lots of football-mad people and simply great guys.

Make up your mind:

Dortmund or Schalke? Definitely Schalke!

Beer or water? Beer.

Club or pub? Pub.

Soccer on TV or stadium? Stadium.

Player type fighter or artist? Fighter.

Bundesliga or Premier League? I prefer the Premier League.

And a few final questions:

Which star would you like to have a beer with? I think with Cristiano Ronaldo. He doesn’t drink beer, but I’d drink his too.

What can you do without? Water (laughs).

What is indispensable for you? Soccer.

What music do you like to listen to and what do you play in the dressing room? I actually listen to a wide variety. But in the dressing room after the game – whether it’s a win or a loss – there’s always party music on.

If you could start again, what would you do differently in your career? I might have done more for my fitness and at the same time tried to take the step into the 3rd division with RWO and not quit so early