Rot-Weiss Essen has been looking for a new number nine – a guaranteed goal scorer – for quite some time. The last RWE striker was Simon Engelmann.

Rot-Weiss Essen has already scored 16 goals this season, but still has one problem: it lacks a real goal scorer. And that has been the case for two years now – since Simon Engelmann left in the summer of 2023.

Leonardo Vonic (63 games, 20 goals) came closest to Engelmann. But neither Moussa Doumbouya (42, 9), Dominik Martinovic (25, 2), Jaka Cuber Potocnik (4, 2), Marek Janssen (3, 2) nor Jannik Mause (5, 0) have been able to follow in the footsteps of the popular “Engel.” The latter three still have a chance, though, because they are current RWE strikers.

But Engelmann’s record in the RWE jersey is impressive: 117 games, 70 goals! A record worthy of a true goal scorer. He was lured to Hafenstraße in the summer of 2020 by the then RWE sporting director Jörn Nowak.

Nowak’s successor, Marcus Steegmann, certainly proved he had a good eye for talent in a number of transfers, such as that of Vonic, who was sold to FC Porto for around €500,000, or the loan deal for Marvin Obuz, and the signings of Ahmet Arslan and Ramien Safi. However, even he has been unable to conjure up a goal scorer for around two years.

In the past, Essen had been interested in several strikers. Most recently, these were Noah Ganaus (who moved from SSV Jahn Regensburg to Odense BK), Lars Lokotsch (SC Verl to SC Preußen Münster) and Vincent Vermeij (Fortuna Düsseldorf to SG Dynamo Dresden).

We took a look at how these former RWE striker candidates are doing at their clubs. At least Ganaus is performing really well.

Ten games, five goals! The 24-year-old seems to have made the right decision in moving to Denmark. In Odense, the 1.93-meter-tall former Regensburg player signed a contract until the summer of 2028. Odense is currently eleventh in the Danish first division. The striker plays regularly – 409 minutes in seven appearances – but is not scoring. One goal and one assist are a meager tally for the former captain of SC Verl, who has been reunited with his former Verl coach Alexander Ende in Münster.

Meanwhile, Vermeij, who was courted by RWE until the end of the transfer window and ultimately lost out to Dresden, has not yet made an appearance for Dynamo. First he struggled with back problems, then with shingles. From a red-and-white perspective, one might think: luckily Vermeij chose Dresden over Essen.