Second division club SC Paderborn is having a very good season so far – thanks in part to defense chief Felix Götze. The 26-year-old is the team’s stalwart.

SC Paderborn was just seconds away from taking the top spot in the second division on the last matchday. The SCP was leading 1-0 in the top match at Fortuna Düsseldorf until the 95th minute, when a bizarre scene unfolded.

Defender Calvin Brackelmann unfortunately headed a Düsseldorf cross onto the back of his teammate Felix Götze’s head. From there, the ball bounced into the bottom right corner for a flattering equalizer for Fortuna.

A small consolation prize: the 1-1 draw meant that Paderborn at least defended its second place in the table. Head coach Lukas Kwasniok’s team has only lost once in twelve games – a 3-0 defeat in Kaiserslautern. Otherwise, Paderborn has had a solid season and remained unbeaten in away games in Cologne (2-1), Hamburg (2-2), and Düsseldorf (1-1).

Defensive stalwart Götze has played a major role in this. The 26-year-old is the only player in the squad to have played every minute of all 14 competitive games.

His coach has already described the center back as an “absolute machine.” The statistics from bundesliga.com show why Kwasniok thinks so highly of his most important defender.

Götze is strong in the tackle, accurate in his passing and commanding in the air.

With a pass completion rate of 92.37 percent (939 touches in 12 games), Götze is the second-best passer in the league. Only seven players in the entire league can boast a better record. The Dortmund-born player is also among the elite in the 2nd division when it comes to winning headers. He has already won 35 aerial duels. In addition, he is one of the most effective SCP players on the ground. Götze won a total of 115 tackles in his first twelve games.

Surprisingly, the new signing is even one of the hardest-running professionals in the second division squad. He averages just over ten kilometers per game – and that as a central defender in a back three. Only Santiago Castaneda and captain Raphael Obermair run more.

These figures illustrate how important Götze is for the promotion candidates. In the summer, he moved to Paderborn on a free transfer after two years at Rot-Weiss Essen. The 1.85-meter-tall player made a total of 57 competitive appearances for RWE (4 goals, 2 assists). His departure could not be compensated for at Hafenstraße.