Rot-Weiß Oberhausen kicks off the 2025/2026 season on Saturday (July 26, 2 p.m.) at the Niederrhein Stadium against FC Gütersloh. We spoke with the sporting director.

Rot-Weiß Oberhausen has high hopes for this season. As CEO Marcus Uhlig said: “We want to increase our chances of being more successful next year.”

RWO is aiming high—to the 3rd division. Starting Saturday (July 26, 2 p.m.), the team will face FC Gütersloh for its first Regionalliga West points of the 2025/2026 season.“We’ve had a mixed preseason,” said Dennis Lichtenwimmer, sporting director at Oberhausen. He added: “We still lack punch in attack and need to improve defensively. Gütersloh are a very strong opponent. Gütersloh always play very cautiously and are among the favorites in my opinion.“ Lichtenwimmer is hoping for a crowd of up to 3,500 fans against Gütersloh. ”I hope the Oberhausen soccer fans are fired up. We’re definitely fired up again! Hopefully the fans are too. We’re grateful for all the support we get to help us have a good season. The fans need to help us to achieve that.”

RWO looking to add a defensive and offensive player

With just over a week to go before the start of the season, the RWO squad is not yet complete. Coach Sebastian Gunkel would like to see one reinforcement each for the defense and offense. Sports director Dennis Lichtenwimmer is scouting the market. Meanwhile, Tanju Öztürk, a strong defensive player for the regional league, has been let go. The emphasis is on dropped. The 35-year-old expressed his surprise to Forecasting at the beginning of the week. When RS confronted him about his search for a new club, Öztürk replied, puzzled: “I keep reading that I’m supposed to be looking for a club. I ask myself: why? I have a valid contract with Rot-Weiß Oberhausen until June 30, 2026. So I have a club, an employer. I don’t want to say anything more about the matter at this time.”

It remains to be seen whether Oberhausen will present a new signing before the Gütersloh game.