Second division football team 1. FC Magdeburg is 16th in the table. A newcomer from Rot-Weiß Oberhausen nevertheless only plays in the reserve team.
During the summer break, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen had to cope with the departure of several key players. One of them was Tim Stappmann. The central defender moved to 1. FC Magdeburg, a team promoted to the second division, in order to gain a foothold in professional football.
According to the “Kicker”, coach Christian Titz’s club had to pay a transfer fee of 80,000 euros to buy Stappmann out of his current contract. The ex-RWE coach praised the talented defender as a “fast central defender, strong in two fights, who is courageous in his opening of the game.”
It was a bitter loss for RWO. The 23-year-old formed a strong central defence with Nico Klaß last season. Just how much Stappmann is currently missing for the Kleeblättern can be seen in the many goals conceded in the current season. But things are also going anything but according to plan for the Krefeld native. He wanted to establish himself under Coach Titz, but the first few months were sobering.
Stappmann only plays in the second team
Although FCM have shown glaring defensive weaknesses in their six league games so far and are the league’s top scorers with 17 goals conceded, the new signing from Oberhausen is not playing a role. On the contrary: Stappmann has not even made it into the 20-man matchday squad – neither in the league nor in the 4-0 defeat in the DFB Cup against Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt.
His only appearances so far have been with the second team in the Saxony-Anhalt Verbandsliga. He played the full season in all four games, won four times with the team and scored his first goal of the season last Saturday in a 6-1 win in Farnstädt.
Stints in the Verbandsliga – one league lower than the Regionalliga West – cannot, of course, be the aspiration of the 23-year-old centre-back, who has performed well for RWO in the past two seasons. Currently, he is only centre-back number five or six in the Titz squad. It will be exciting to see how things progress for Stappmann in Magdeburg.
