The regional leagues are on winter break, and the races are tight in many places. But who are the all-time best scorers? And are they still playing?

No one in the regional league can hold a candle to Simon Engelmann. That said, this season he actually has to take a back seat. With 19 goals, his SV Meppen teammate Julian Ulbricht is currently in first place in the Regionalliga Nord. Engelmann has scored “only” eight times.

Historically speaking, however, he stands far and away at the top. In the current format of the Regionalliga, which has been in place since 2012, Engelmann has scored 189 goals. An incredible tally that, let’s face it, no one else comes even close to matching.

Engelmann began his soccer career at VfL Oythe, where he made a name for himself in the 2009–2010 season by scoring 25 goals in 30 Oberliga matches. The left-footed player then played for various clubs, including Sportfreunde Lotte, SC Verl, and Rot-Weiß Oberhausen.

Engelmann enjoyed his most successful period at SV Rödinghausen, where he was the top scorer in the Regionalliga West on multiple occasions: 2018–2019 with 19 goals, 2019–2020 with 26 goals, 2020–2021 with 29 goals, and 2021–2022 with 24 goals.

In the summer of 2020, he transferred to Rot-Weiss Essen, where he continued his impressive scoring rate. Since July 2023, Engelmann has been playing for SV Rödinghausen again. Before his move to Meppen, Engelmann scored 29 goals in 57 competitive matches for SVR over the past two years.

Particularly noteworthy: In Meppen, Engelmann primarily comes off the bench. That makes his goal-scoring rate of eight goals (plus four assists) in 21 games even more impressive.

In second place is Adam Jabiri, who has scored 151 goals for Wormatia Worms, Würzburger Kickers, and 1. FC Schweinfurt 05. However, he ended his career in the summer of 2024 and will no longer catch up to Engelmann.

The 35-year-old Marc-Philipp Zimmermann, on the other hand, is still playing. He ranks third with 135 goals for VfC Plauen, Carl Zeiss Jena, FSV Zwickau, and VfB Auerbach. However, he has not yet scored for Zwickau this season.

In fourth place is Roman Prokoph, another familiar face from the west. He has scored 127 times for Sportfreunde Lotte, Hannover 96 II, 1. FC Köln II, Fortuna Köln, and Wuppertaler SV. He now plays for Kirchheimer SC in the Bavarian State League.

Sven Kreyer, on the other hand, could make another push, as he is currently playing with Ratingen 04/19 for promotion from the Oberliga Niederrhein to the Regionalliga West. He has scored 125 goals so far for VfL Bochum II, Rot-Weiss Essen, Viktoria Köln, and Rot-Weiß Oberhausen. He may continue with Ratingen next year.