Rot-Weiss Essen have suffered a defeat after the very important victory in the Lower Rhine Cup quarter-final at KFC Uerdingen – in the transfer market.

A sigh of relief at Rot-Weiss Essen: After a very exciting cup fight in front of over 8,000 spectators at KFC Uerdingen, RWE ultimately prevailed 3:1 against the Oberliga club and secured their ticket to the Lower Rhine Cup semi-finals. Then it’s probably off to Germania 04/19 Ratingen in April.

Ahmed Etri is likely to be back, at least in the squad. But from July 1, the 18-year-old will no longer represent the RWE emblem.

Forecasting has learned that Etri has turned down Rot-Weiss Essen and opted for TSG Hoffenheim’s U23 team. According to RS information, the right-footed player, who can play both defensively and offensively on the right flank, has signed a three-year contract with the Bundesliga club’s regional reserve team.

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Etri’s advisor, Dennis Blasczyk, who is also head of sport at FC Kray, confirmed the transfer to Forecasting: “After careful consideration, we have decided in favor of TSG. Head of the NLZ Frank Kramer and Tim Lederere as well as coach Vincent Wagner, who still knows Ahmed from Essen, made a lot of effort and convinced us. The overall package from Hoffenheim was simply great. The talks with Marcus Steegmann were also really good, but the prospects in Hoffenheim with the conditions for Ahmed’s development were extremely important to us. In the end, we didn’t decide against Rot-Weiss Essen, but in favor of TSG Hoffenheim.”

Ahmed Etri meets Vincent Wagner in Hoffenheim

Vincent Wagner, under whom Etri played one game in Wagner’s then U19 team in the 2021/2022 season as a U17 player, has been under contract with TSG since July 1, 2022 and has done an outstanding job. This is reflected in a points average of 1.98 points in 56 games. When the 37-year-old Wagner left Essen for Hoffenheim in the summer of 2022, Joshua Quarshie (currently at Fortuna Düsseldorf) also moved to Hoffenheim. Etri now follows two years later.

According to information from this editorial team, Etri, who as an Under-19 player regularly trains with the RWE third division team and has also made two appearances in the 3rd division, playing a total of 24 minutes, was spoilt for choice. Essen’s sporting management around squad planner Marcus Steegmann were keen to keep Etri, a promising home-grown talent who has been playing for RWE since the summer of 2018, and offered the Münster native a two-year contract plus an option for a further season, according to RS information. However, Steegmann was ultimately unable to convince the German-Lebanese to stay at Hafenstrasse.

This also applies to the U23 representatives of Fortuna Düsseldorf and FC Schalke 04, where Etri once played in the Knappenschmiede, as well as a number of other second teams.