At times, hardly a day went by without Sportfreunde Lotte presenting a new player. But something is also happening on the departures side.

Berkan Ersoy has fought his way into the Oberliga at Sportfreunde Lotte, but will continue his career in the Westfalenliga. At SC Rot-Weiß Maaslingen to be precise.

As a promoted team, they finished a respectable seventh in the last round. For a long time, it even looked as if an even better position was possible. Coach Sergej Bartel told FuPa that this is a goal for the upcoming round.

He said: “We are pleased that we were able to convince Berkan of our goals, our ambitions, our team and, above all, our environment. We scouted him early on and had already contacted him last fall. In lengthy discussions, we showed him what we had in mind. Accordingly, it was a good fit for both sides, so he and we are more than satisfied.”

He continued: “He is still young and can continue to develop with us. We are also very happy that we were able to beat off a lot of competition. You can imagine that when a 21-year-old becomes available at a regional league promotion team, some people are after him. I think we have acquired a good player and I believe he will also play in a good team.”

Ersoy comes from the youth divisions of Arminia Bielefeld and VfL Osnabrück. He moved the few kilometers over to Lotter Kreuz in the summer of 2022. The defensive midfielder has played 17 games in the U19 Bundesliga Nord/Nordost and 33 games in the Oberliga Westfalen (one goal, one assist).

Sportfreunde Lotte have recently made a number of changes, particularly in terms of signings. So far, these newcomers have joined Sportfreunde Lotte for the upcoming Regionalliga West season: Nico Thier (SG Wattenscheid 09), Kevin Schacht (Preußen Münster II), Tugay Gündogan (TGK Tecklenburg), Felix Mensing, Florian Wendt (both SC Paderborn II), Elario Ghassan (SSV Jeddeloh II), Beytullah Özer (SC Wiedenbrück), Steffen Westphal (SV Lippstadt 08), Lars Spit (SV Meppen), Kevin Holzweiler (Rot-Weiss Essen), Kamer Krasniqi (VfB Oldenburg), Anis El Hamassi (FC Brünninghausen), Denis Milic (TSG Sprockhövel), Fatih Ufuk (SV Lippstadt 08), Samuel Addai (ETB Schwarz-Weiß Essen), Luis Hillemeier (Victoria Clarholz)