The U19s of Rot-Weiss Essen will have to play in the Niederrheinliga next season. For one player, it continues with the professionals despite the Bundesliga relegation.

The A-juniors of the third division club Rot-Weiss Essen play a disastrous Bundesliga season and are relegated to the Niederrheinliga. One matchday before the end, the U19s are in penultimate place in the table with one win and a meagre six points. Their departure to the Niederrheinliga has been clear for weeks.

Last weekend, RWE came up well short in a high-scoring derby against VfL Bochum, who were happy to have secured their place in the league, losing 3:4.

One of RWE’s goalscorers was Ben Heuser. The 19-year-old was one of the positive aspects of this disappointing team under outgoing coach Suat Tokat. Heuser scored three goals in 14 appearances.

He will continue his career with the senior team as of 1 July. From a paper point of view, also at Rot-Weiss Essen. According to our information, Heuser still has a contract with RWE until 30 June 2025.

However, it is questionable whether he will also put the follow-up contract with RWE into practice. Because the U19 international of Switzerland has prominent and strong competition in his traditional position in central midfield, which he can play both defensively and offensively. For example: Niklas Tarnat, Björn Rother, Felix Götze, Thorben Müsel, Thomas Eisfeld or also Cedric Harenbrock.

It remains to be seen whether Heuser, can prevail against one of these RWE professionals and earn a squad spot for the 2023/2024 season.

“Basically, the guys are already a bit far away. We are not in the situation now to bring in young players,” said RWE coach Christoph Dabrowski before the Bayreuth game.

Essen’s sporting director Jörn Nowak also emphasised recently that it is anything but easy to integrate in-house talent into the professional ranks. Nowak: “The jump to the 3rd division is huge, even from the top U19 Bundesliga clubs,” Nowak said during Essen’s 2-0 win over Bayreuth at Magenta Sport. “And for a club like us it’s even more difficult because we don’t have a substructure in the form of a second team where the boys can gain enough match practice.”

It remains to be seen what plan RWE will pursue with Heuser, who is tied to the club until the summer of 2025, after 1 July 2023.